Family Historian User Group

I have found some relatives whose names are Van Allen. When I go to look at the list of individuals, they are listed as Allen, George Ernest Van, etc. How do I get them to be listed as Van Allen without just closing the two, i.e., VanAllen? I found nothing in Help.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Goodwin2

Edit the surname so that it looks like George Ernest /Van Allen/ Enclose the whole surname between the / (slash) and it will then display the surname properly. For single barrelled surnames you don't need to enter the slashes FH does it for you automatically.

Thanks so much for the info. Was disappointed that I found nothing in the Help file.

The user group always comes up with an answer. Greatly appreciated!

It's explained in the Family Historian Help File under the first paragraph of "How to enter a Person's Name".

Mervyn

It's in the help under

How to Enter a Person's Name

Also see how_to:entered_accented_and_other_special_characters|> Enter Accented and Other Special Characters under Double-Barrelled Names where it explains the two names can be separated by a no-break-space so they get treated as one name.

After using the more (+)... option next to the Name field of the Property Box to open the Names & Titles for... dialogue, click Help for detailed advice.
Alternatively, use Help > Search Help, enter Name and click List Topics. The top entry is the one above, and the 4th entry is How to Enter a Person's Name, which mentions the setting below.

Also Tools > Preferences > Property Box > Show Surnames Between Slashes set to Always makes it clearer.

Is there an established view of how names like:

• Simon de Vere
• Michael du Bois
• Ursula von der Leyen
• William of Normandy
• Henry of Wales
• Herbert von Karajan
• Jacqueline du Pré
• Manuel de Falla
• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Leonardo di ser Perio da Vinci
• Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan

Should be entered?

I would add that they are not ancestors(!), but when entering such names into Family Trees or into my music library (when I want to sort by Surname), I am left wondering where the link word (does it have an official name?) belongs - to the surname or not. (I note, in passing, that my music app (Strawberry) treats "The Beatles" as sorting under "B" without intervention)

I suspect if there is no gap - "DiCaprio" or merely apostrophed - "d'Artagnan", you treat the whole thing as a surname.

Different names "feel" to go different ways. So if looking for the conductor, I tend to look under "Karajan, Herbert von", but I would not look for the Cellist under "Pré, Jacqueline du" (but under "du Pré, Jacqueline").

With clearly English link words, I tend to drop them: "Normandy, William; William I of England" - with the "William I of England" being a title (although to search names for "William I /of England/" would be more convenient!

One option is to enter such names twice:
Primary Name: Simon /de Vere/ optionally with a no-break-space
Alternate Name: Simon de /Vere/
Then the Records Window Filter on Last Name will find it whether you use de Vere or Vere.

In this case the surname often morphs into Devere, so listing De Vere amongst the D's will bring the family members nearer together, whereas Vere won't.

It also depends on whether you prefer Simon DE VERE or Simon de VERE in displays where the default of capitalised surnames is applied.

But as usual with such things, just be consistent.

Thanks again for all the updates. Guess I was too explicit in the way I phrased the question in Help. Nice that it is fairly simple to get the names in a format I will use in my database.

My Sherwood line originates in England - Thomas Sherwood b. 1586 in Ipswich, d. 1655 in Connecticut.

Happy to share with any who might have folks in this line.

Have had answers to all my "how to" questions here and am sure that there are MANY more who are grateful for the help with their questions.