diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index f40d15b95..26829d026 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 2004-02-05  Alex Roitman  <shura@alex.neuro.umn.edu>
 	* src/plugins/Merge.py (gen_key,name_compare): 
 	Fall back to not using soundex if the charset can't be latin-1 encoded.
+	* src/plugins/soundgen.py: Fall back to empty input.
 
 2004-02-05  Michel Guitel  <michel.guitel@free.fr>
 	* doc/gramps-manual/fr/cmdline.xml: Update.
diff --git a/src/plugins/soundgen.py b/src/plugins/soundgen.py
index 358ee105f..0bdd80fa4 100644
--- a/src/plugins/soundgen.py
+++ b/src/plugins/soundgen.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #
 # Gramps - a GTK+/GNOME based genealogy program
 #
-# Copyright (C) 2000-2003  Donald N. Allingham
+# Copyright (C) 2000-2004  Donald N. Allingham
 #
 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -75,14 +75,22 @@ class SoundGen:
         if active_person:
             n = active_person.getPrimaryName().getSurname()
             self.name.set_text(n)
-            self.value.set_text(soundex.soundex(n))
+            try:
+                se_text = soundex.soundex(n)
+            except UnicodeEncodeError:
+                se_text = soundex.soundex('')
+            self.value.set_text(se_text)
         else:
             self.name.set_text("")
             
         self.glade.get_widget("soundEx").show()    
 
     def on_apply_clicked(self,obj):
-        self.value.set_text(soundex.soundex(unicode(obj.get_text())))
+        try:
+            se_text = soundex.soundex(unicode(obj.get_text()))
+        except UnicodeEncodeError:
+            se_text = soundex.soundex('')
+        self.value.set_text(se_text)
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #