Family Historian User Group

I have long been troubled by the difficulty of managing/tracking/listing an individual's multiple names - whether name changes at marriage or other events, different preferred given names over time, surname spellings that morph with time or according to a scribe's taste, etc, etc.

It is not so much a problem on diagrams. This truly excellent facility is flexible enough to display multiple names with NAME[1+] and other variants through Given Name Used and so on.

The root of the problem, of course, is GEDCOM structure with such limits as a *single* Given, Nickname and Surname per individual. But it goes deeper, because the repeating Name fields are not treated as FACTS (attributes in this case).

If a Name was a Fact, a custom query could list every name instance with its fact owner (Individual) and provide a powerful way to make a sorted list of all givens or surnames you may wish to record for a person. For my money, that would be a great improvement over the current FH Individual records window.

Now my questions are:

(1) Am I missing something, and there is a better way?

(2) If not, is there any reason why FH/Simon could not *treat* NAME as a FACT and allow me to write the kind of query outlined above?

Many thanks.

Paul, you are partially correct but I think there are some misunderstandings in your posting.

Firstly, the GEDCOM spec and FH support multiple identical Name structures.
Every NAME instance allows a Forename, Surname, Prefix, Suffix, Nickname, Given Name Used, etc.
In the Property Box on the Main tab click the more (+)... button to open the Names & Titles dialogue.
The Primary Name is shown with various subfields.
The Alternate Name list with identical multiple entries has a column for each subfield that can be updated via the Edit button.
It is possible to create a Query to list all those Name instances but it probably won't quite do what you want.

Secondly, it is possible to create a custom Name fact attribute that could provide the features you want in a Query.

Finally, there are Plugins and the Plugin Store has the Surname Summary Report and Search All Possible Names plugins.
A plugin derived from those two could quite easily list the various Name fields against their owners as you want.

Thanks, Mike, I really appreciate your quick reply.

To be honest, I had not thought of using a custom attribute to use as a name. At first glance, that seems a way to go to get the listing I'm looking for. I do use custom events quite a lot, so that's not a problem in principle. Sadly, though, there would be a lot of work updating existing records and there is something rather retrograde about replacing the existing name structure.

But going back to your first point, the multiple NAME structure instances are precisely what I would like to (continue to) use. Sure, FH supports them (as I said) in diagrams. And it would be possible to output them in an *Individual* query as separate columns for NAME[1], NAME[2], etc. The downside of that is not having an "integrated" single column (without saving results to a file and merging the data in e.g. a spreadsheet).

It is a fact-type query I'm looking for, and would give exactly what I want - but NAME is not a fact, is it? But could FH not *treat* it as one?

Lastly, the plugins you mention are great, but not relevant here.

Yes, FH could treat Names as if a Fact, and such a suggestion could be proposed, but don't expect anything soon.

The Plugins are relevant in that they interrogate all the Name field instances and their subfields, so with relatively minor modification, they could produce the Fact like Result Set list that you require.
Would you be interested in that approach with some tuition?

That's a very kind offer, Mike. Sounds like a good way forward when I've got some time to spare. I'd like to come back to this in a little while. Many thanks.

Name change is an event or can be, using Deed Poll.
That is what I do on my trees. Even if there is no actually a deed poll. For instance German Jews who were refugees from Hitler later had British names given them when serving in the British army.