Family Historian User Group

(1) Attached is a screenshot from the FH Sample that shows the Married Name column in the record window. No Married Names display, which is the same as in my active project. The data reference (as shown) is for INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME. However, there is no attribute offered for MARRIED_NAME in the FH attributes list.
(2) I find that my Swedish ancestors might have had several surnames during their lifetime depending on changing locations, professions, or simple preference. Furthermore, Scandinavian naming customs meant surnames changed with each generation and male and female siblings could have had different surnames.

I enter all variant names and spellings as found in genealogical records; the corresponding citation thus provides information about when the name was used or perhaps misspelled, given that dates cannot be associated with names in FH7. Connected FH7 notes also include the timeframe that a name part was associated with an individual. Nicknames go in the Nickname field of a custom Names Tab and likewise a Preferred Name is entered when an individual preferred or consistently used a name that is not their primary name.

FamilyHistorian7 allows for assigning types of alternate names of which I select birth—name on birth or baptism certificate—for the primary name and for variant names aka (also known as, alias) or married. The GEDCOM types “immigrant” and “maiden” have no functionality for me and optional “user defined” types neither appear in the FH7 edit drop-down nor are they part of GEDCOM standards.

PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND...
a) What is the reference INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME all about? If it is a custom attribute, why is it part of the FH Sample project?
b) I am already using the "married" type. How can I get that to display in the record window?
c) Which is better to use, i.e. more compatible with other GEDCOM programs: the married name attribute or married name type?

BEJ wrote: ↑

05 Jun 2023 13:00

PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND...
a) What is the reference INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME all about? If it is a custom attribute, why is it part of the FH Sample project?
b) I am already using the "married" type. How can I get that to display in the record window?
c) Which is better to use, i.e. more compatible with other GEDCOM programs: the married name attribute or married name type?

a) INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME does refer to a Custom Attribute but it is not specifically part of the FH Sample Project.
Most customisations, such as that Records Window Column, and including custom Diagrams, Reports, Queries, Facts Sets, etc, apply globally to all Projects.
You must have added that Records Window Column yourself at some time in the past.
Perhaps when experimenting with the Name Changes Fact Set download which defines the Married Name Custom Attribute.

b) The "married" type has the data ref %INDI.NAME[n].TYPE% where n identifies the nth instance of the Alternate Names.
So the Records Window Column Expression will need an expression like:
=TextIf( %INDI.NAME[2].TYPE% = "married", %INDI.NAME[2]% )
That relies on the first Alternate Name potentially being a "married" name.
However, a simpler way of displaying the 1st Spouse Name is to use the data Reference %INDI.~SPOU>NAME%
That can be made conditional on the Spouse being Female if you wish.
It gets more interesting if the person had multiple partners/spouses/marriages.

c) In my experience, more programs will support a Custom Attribute than the INDI.NAME.TYPE field.
However, it depends on the particular program.

Thanks for the thorough response. All good: a,b,c.

It gets more interesting if the person had multiple partners/spouses/marriages.

I've reworked my records to display the Married Name attribute, instead of the Married Name type and immediately encountered two women who had more than one married name. Do you have a suggestion for handling these "more interesting" situations?

BEJ wrote: ↑

06 Jun 2023 11:27

It gets more interesting if the person had multiple partners/spouses/marriages.

I've reworked my records to display the Married Name attribute, instead of the Married Name type and immediately encountered two women who had more than one married name. Do you have a suggestion for handling these "more interesting" situations?

That’s why most people stick with the maiden name. That never changes, no matter how many times they marry

It depends on how you are recording the multiple married names in the attribute.
1) Are you listing all the names as the value of a single attribute?
2) Are you creating a separate attribute for each married name so you can include the date, etc?

1) The existing Records Window column INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME will display the entire names list.
2) The Records Window column must use INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME[1] and INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME[2], etc, to specify each instance and combine them together with comma separators.
e.g.
This will cater for up to 4 married name attributes:
=CombineText( , %INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME[1]%, CombineText( " , ", %INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME[2]%, CombineText( " , ", %INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME[3]%, CombineText( " , ", %INDI._ATTR-MARRIED_NAME[4]%, , ) , ) , ) , )

That’s why most people stick with the maiden name.

I agree. The primary name for all persons in my project is their birth name. I'm trying to consider the best way to deal with alternate names.

Thanks, Mike. The simple solution is the enter multiple surnames as a single value in the Married Name(s) attribute for each person. I will rely on marriage facts for dates, etc.

Gowermick wrote: ↑

06 Jun 2023 12:13

BEJ wrote: ↑

06 Jun 2023 11:27

It gets more interesting if the person had multiple partners/spouses/marriages.

I've reworked my records to display the Married Name attribute, instead of the Married Name type and immediately encountered two women who had more than one married name. Do you have a suggestion for handling these "more interesting" situations?

That’s why most people stick with the maiden name. That never changes, no matter how many times they marry

It's as well you ended ! On baptism, census (1841 to 1881), marriage, death and burial records my g-g grandfather is given 6 different surnames - Hollin, Rollin (the correct name), Rawlins, Rollins, Rollen, and on FMP Bollins (a mis-transcription now corrected).

I am often told how lucky I am to have an unusual name, and therefore fewer records to analyse, but it does have a major downside of having a much greater than average instance of mis-spellings and mis-transcriptions.