* How to Handle People With Multiple Names

[Ron Melby]

I have read the discussions and read the knowledge base on this. I have questions. LOL. I am on 6.2.2 and am in the US.

I have a gedcom. I have edited it for about 2 years now, and have multiple of the following problems:
this is a mix of findagrave and very obviously real gedcom.

Phoebe Ann Covey Browning
Birth: Oct. 18, 1815
New York, USA
Death: Feb. 25, 1901
Eau Claire County
Wisconsin, USA

1 NAME Phoebe Ann /Covey/
2 GIVN Phoebe, Ann
2 SURN Covey
2 NAME Phoebe Ann /Sibley/
2 NAME Phoebe Ann /Chapman/
2 NAME Phoebe Ann /Browning/

Married 1st. Joseph Charles Sibley on 06 May 1833 in New York.
2nd Royal Jesse Chapman 23 Jul 1858 in Mazeppa, Wabasha, Minn.
3rd Alexander Browning 02 Jul 1861 in Bear Creek, Pepin, WI.

Emma Melissa Disney Spicer

1 NAME Emma Melissa /Disney/
**** disney is the fathers name by family lore, then the daughter takes the mothers name, subsequently informally adopted by a man named Michaud (I think, dont have it handy) and finally married a spicer****
2 NAME Emma Melissa /Sibley/
2 NAME Melissa /Sibley/
2 NAME Melissa /Disney/
2 NAME Emma Melissa /Spicer/
2 NAME Melissa /Spicer/

These people are known by all these names, and more. I want to insure the names index, and when I look at the thing in FH I get a purple question mark by the entry.

rather than software at this time, how does the gedcom look when these entries ares done correctly according to FH? It is easier for me to fix it all by hand at this point than all the clicks, and cuts and pastes. If this makes sense.

Or am I altogether lost?

[trevorrix]

Only record the birth name. If a female subsequently married the change of name is imputed by the marriage record in Family Historian.

[Ron Melby]

Thanks for that, it solves a few issues.

However I don't need or want a bunch of unknown1.........2000 /Johnson/ and unknown1...............2000 /Anderson/ and unknown1..................20000 /Hanson/ s to be in my file. I am in Minnesota, a scandinavian enclave in the US. I will have a lot of that.
or have husb.LenaJohnson1 /Johnson/ husb.LenaJohnson2 /Johnson/ either. and make fake marriages for all this. I have so many Living /Sibley/ and Living /Hook/ and Living /Johnson/ et all now.
I guess I could have picked better examples to define the problem, those examples are the ones I know the most about, rather than the least.

Well, lesson learned there.

[davidf]

Recording people by their birth names is I agree the cleanest way forward but you need a way to handle the cases where this does not work because you do not know for certain what the birth surname was. I have adopted a convention that helps me.

1) You have a woman "marrying-in" but you do not yet know her surname.
I record these with the husband's surname prefixed by a "!",
e.g. Sue !Smith (wife of Mr Smith)

2) You have a Sue Smith on a burial or similar record, but do not know if she is married (Sue !Smith as above) or unmarried (Sue Smith);
I record these with the surname on the record prefixed by a "?",
e.g. Sue ?Smith

This has the advantage that if I have a Sue !Smith and a Sue ?Smith in the same area at the same time - I can ponder whether they are one and the same. This is easier than trying to match multiple Sue /Unknown/s

I have subsequently pondered whether the "!" and "?" prefixes should actually have been suffixes - so they sort with other potential members of their families in the record list.

[victor]

If I don't know the wife's maiden name I always use her husbands name inside brackets.

like say Sally (Markham). If is a second or third marriage I still use the first marriage surname because subsequent marriage will be her last husbands name. Only by finding details of the first marriage will you be able to find her maiden name but subsequent marriages will have the words 'formerly' on the certificate so then you will have her maiden name that way.

Victor

[Ron Melby]

Yup, I do that. the case is a woman married 5 times lets say and only know last husband for sure.

how do I handle the case after maiden name
Jessie Sibley <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< maiden
Jessie Rae Johnson << two different johnsons
Jessie R Johnson <<two different johnsons
Jessie Burke
Jessie Johnson <<<<<<<<<< know that one and husband

I read about some tags for multiple names, marriage, deed, and so on, and wonder if they work and index and so on.

Then, if that works and they have some user defineables, how do I insure that name hits the indexer?

[Ron Melby]

But so far it looks like the best answer is leave it in error.

[tatewise]

Your GEDCOM examples are invalid syntax, which explains FH unusual symbols.
All the NAME tags must be at level 1 not level 2.
i.e. multiple instances of the same tag.
e.g.
1 NAME Phoebe Ann /Sibley/
1 NAME Phoebe Ann /Chapman/
1 NAME Phoebe Ann /Browning/

[Ron Melby]

Thank you. Now that I look at it.......
I feel so cheap.


To be clear
1 NAME Phoebe Ann /Covey/
2 GIVN Phoebe, Ann
2 SURN Covey
1 NAME Phoebe Ann /Sibley/
1 NAME Phoebe Ann /Chapman/
1 NAME Phoebe Ann /Browning/

Would fix my problem here?

I have more questions, different tags, I will ask on separate thread after searching.

[Gowermick]

Ron,
Like others, I always use a woman's maiden name wherever possible. The way I get round 'unknown' maiden names is to use the Nee suffix, e.g. Sally /Markham Nee ??/. By placing 'Nee ?? ' inside the slashes (/), FH treats it all as a single surname.

It also comes in handy when I periodically hunt for their maiden names, I just work through all women with 'Nee' in their surname. When I know she has married more than once, to avoid confusion, I use the surname of her first known husband with the Nee suffix.

I found it really serves no purpose changing her surname whenever she re-marries, as it is the marriage of her first husband I need to find to discover her maiden name, (unless I spend money buying a marriage certificate, which I avoid unless a direct ancestor).

[tatewise]

That is correct Ron, and may I wish you a belated welcome to the FHUG.

BTW: I don't think FH gives a purple question mark for that invalid syntax, it usually uses a star bullet to indicate a UDF as explained in how_to:handling_unrecognised_data_fields|> Handling Uncategorised Data Fields (UDF).

If you are new to FH have a look at how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers.

Regarding the use of Husband's Surname, I recommend putting the name in [square brackets].
That convention is used by my Lookup Missing Census/BMD Records plugins to remove such names so they are not used in the online search.

[Ron Melby]

1 NAME Karen /Johnson/ <<<<husband known and has a record
1 NAME Karen [Johnson] <<<< no idea who that guy is and I dont want to create a record for him

Do I have that right?

And yeah, I used to have 20/10 vision, but eyes are not good, could be a star could be a trident, I dont know. LOL.

[tatewise]

No Ron:
1 NAME Karen /Thomson/ <<<< her birth/maiden Surname known
1 NAME Karen /[Johnson]/ <<<< her birth/maiden Surname not known so use Husband's Surname to differentiate her from other Karens and associate her with husband.
GEDCOM Surnames must always be delimited within / symbols.
In both above examples she may or may not be linked via a Family record to her husband Individual Record.

BTW: Your earlier use of GIVN and SURN tags is not well formed GEDCOM.
They duplicate the given names and surname in the NAME tag.
Those two tags are reserved for systems that cannot handle the NAME structure.

[E Wilcock]

Thank goodness for this guidance on married women whose birth name is not yet known.
There are other multiple names -
Name changes. Sometimes of both forename and surname.

FH has no Event for Name Change. And if one sets up a second name, it doesnt show either in the focus window or the Facts list in the property box.

Truth to say I am lost without this Tag -
What do FH *Users do?
Any way one could put these names too within square brackets so they appear on the Focus window?
And if one selects a concocted name as work round and then selects it as a principle name in FH, so one can see it on screen, will that wreck any Gedcom export?

[mjashby]

I use the additional Change of Name Fact Set available here:
fhugdownloads:contents:name_change_fact_set|> Fact Set ~ Name Changes
but also include significant differences in the list of alternative names as it helps with FH Index searches.

Mervyn

[tatewise]

Take a look at how_to:handle_people_with_multiple_names|> How to Handle People With Multiple Names.

That explains various techniques, and cross-refers to that download for name change custom facts that will appear in the Facts tab.

There is also the Adjust AKA Names for Reports Plugin that has two modes of use:

1. Add/remove all Alternate Names to/from the Primary Name
2. Create an AKA (Also Known As) custom fact to hold all names for display in the Facts tab and in Reports.

Also it is quite easy to customise the Main tab to show as many Alternate Names as you wish.

In the Names/Titles dialogue (where Alternate Names are edited) there is a Make Primary button to swap any chosen Alternate Name with the Primary Name. That change is perfectly legitimate GEDCOM.

I will update the KB article to cover all these associated techniques.

[Ron Melby]

Mike,

No Ron:
1 NAME Karen /Thomson/ <<<< her birth/maiden Surname known
1 NAME Karen /[Johnson]/ <<<< her birth/maiden Surname not known so use Husband's Surname to differentiate her from other Karens and associate her with husband.
GEDCOM Surnames must always be delimited within / symbols.
In both above examples she may or may not be linked via a Family record to her husband Individual Record.
********************

Karen Johnson marries Al Thompson, then is divorced. Next she lives with or marries or has a child by some feller who we dont know named Johnson. Then she dumps him and marries some other unknown Johnson
and so on.

I am trying to avoid a file full of (as I said, scandinavian enclave)
KarenJohnson1Husband /Johnson/
...........
KarenJonnson20Husband /Johnson/

LenaHanson1Husband /Hanson/
........
LenaHanson20Husband /Johnson/

and so on. it is unlikely they will ever be fleshed out or related those records if I make them....

[Ron Melby]

Oh, wait, just finished another cup of coffee.

Got it. LOL. What a guy!!! What a group of guys!!!! What an army of guys you are Mike!!!!!

[steveflanuk]

Apologies - I know I'm late to this one, but I think the replies you've had Ron show that people deal with name changes in different ways.

There is the option to add other 'AKA' names for a person (there is a greyed 'more...' next to the name on the Main tab of the property box), however, like others I prefer to use different Name attributes (Married name, etc) which then allows me to date the change and add any sources/notes. I never assume that a wife automatically takes a husband's surname unless I find something to the contrary (like a child's birth certificate, census entry, etc).

When it comes to unknown names, if I don't know anything then I add a [?] for either the surname or forename. If I don't know a wife's surname then I use the husbands surname, but in square brackets. Personally, I just find it easier, but in the end it all comes down to whatever you are comfortable with using.