* Women's Married Surnames

[PaulDesmondWhite]

Does anyone else feel as frustrated as I do that genealogy programs don't provide 'visibility' of women through their married surnames?

Typical scenario is to see a death record for (e.g.) Mary White and need to check if that's 'one of ours'.

How about an expanded version of the Records Window that shows women as many times as they have different surnames? Any support for a Wish List item?

ID:7031

[PeterR]

Have you tried Jane's V5 Plugin: Search All Possible Names?

[tatewise]

There is also the fhugdownloads:contents:married_women|> Download > Query:Individual ~ Married Women Names.

It is also perfectly feasible to customise the Individual Records Window with a Column for every Married Name.

You can even add an Alternate Name containing the Married Name for the Individual.

You could even customise the Custom Query or Jane's Plugin to search specifically for the Married Name in question.

So I am never frustrated with so many ways of searching for married women.

[PaulDesmondWhite]

Thanks, Peter & Mike, for the feedback.

Alternate names are a pain in this case because you need to create one for every woman at marriage - a huge effort and error-prone, besides being a misuse of the data structure.

Separate columns for each married name doesn't allow you to see the records in a natural, 'merged' order.

The point I didn't make clear enough is that my default records window sort order is surname, first given, birth date. If I then find a death or census record (or almost any other reference) for John White born around 1860, the records window shows me immediately anyone possibly relevant within any given date accuracy.

For possibly married *women* (and in general we wouldn't know) the records window is useless. I'd like all the married name identities to be created and merged in automatically.

[PeterR]

The Records window shows only a single row for each record.  But, as you will have seen, if you tried it, the Result Set from Jane's Plugin shows a row for each name for each Individual, including the primary Name field, any alternative Name fields actually added to the record and, crucially, a married surname for each marriage of all married women, and this without any additional input to the record.

It shouldn't be too difficult to modify the Plugin to output all possible Names for all Individuals, and to include any additional fields in extra columns as in your Records window.

[AdrianBruce]

I thought there was a wish-list item for this, or something similar, but I can't find it. I do remember discussions somewhere (I'm sure on FHUG) where the suggestion was that an additional line be created in the Individuals Record Window for each Alternate Name that someone had. The additional line should be distinguished from the 'proper' line because the additional line is there solely to show the alternate name in its 'proper' place. IT people would generally term this additional line as an Alias - not to be confused with any genealogical use of that term. (Though in this case the two usages are close).

Where I would deviate from Paul's view is that I would not want the additional names to be automatically created. I can just imagine the complaints if one has a female relative who deliberately did not take her husband's name - only to find FH had over-ridden her desires. Automatic assumption of a husband's name is very cultural specific - even Scotland is fairly ambivalent on it.

[PaulDesmondWhite]

Hmmm, Adrian. I wasn't meaning in any way to disrespect a woman's wish not to be known by her husband's name - only that she might have been unwittingly referred to that way. And, of course, people do change their minds - and how would you necessarily know about that?

Aaahh, Peter, I didn't try the plug-in: HUGE MISTAKE. Hadn't realised it created a result set which, I find, shows me exactly what I want (including, crucially, the ability to sort on life dates).

Now I want a toolbar shortcut to run it instantly (Simon?).

Congratulations, Jane, a really splendid bit of work there and I'm especially impressed that you search all the Name[n] fields.

As it happens I tend to steer clear of using additional names but do make occasional use of 'additional' Given, Given Name Used and Surname within the primary name. Don't suppose you could include these too in your search, Jane?

[PeterR]

In the Plugins window (from the Tools menu) you should click the More>> button, highlight the required Plugin, and then tick the box Add to Tools Menu.  From then on the Plugin will appear in the Tools menu.

[PaulDesmondWhite]

Ha ha ha!

[johnmorrisoniom]

A 'Plugin Toolbar' was requested/suggested at the beta test stage of V5, but Simon said that there was too much work involved to have it ready in time for V5, but I think it may be on the cards for V6

[Jane]

Paul is it these data references you are using?

INDI.NAME[1].GIVN
INDI.NAME[1].NICK
INDI.NAME[1].SURN
INDI.NAME[1]._USED

Also a handy trick for plugin on the tools menu you want really quick access to is to rename them so they start with a letter not already on the menu, you can then hit

ALT then T then the start letter to run the plugin.

You can also add a & in front of the letter you want to press if it already exists in the Plugin Name.

[PaulDesmondWhite]

That's right, Jane. Thanks for the tip too.

[Jane]

I think this will search all the fields
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6mh7obz8fvy8o ... mes.fh_lua

Please could someone check it and see if I have missed anything else.

[AdrianBruce]

Paul White said:
I wasn't meaning in any way to disrespect a woman's wish not to be known by her husband's name - only that she might have been unwittingly referred to that way. ...

Paul - good point about the mistake angle.

Having been around the edges of various GEDCOM replacement discussions, I do get very alert to assumptions over naming practices. (I also killed off a Scottish 3GGF too early because there was only one woman in the census with the id of 3GGM and she was a widow. Turned out this was the census when 3GGM used her maiden name, and the woman I'd found was just a coincidence! Another reason for sensitivity on this score).

[Jane]

Hence the reason the plugin is called search all possible names.

[PaulDesmondWhite]

Hi, Jane, that's really kind of you!

A few oddities:

1. If I have a name Appy Boffy (with a marriage to Murfy) but also add subtag Given Name Honey to the first, there are no records found when searching for Appy Boffy. Somehow adding a 'second' given name is blocking visibility of Appy.

2. Searching just on *one* of Given Name Used, Given, Nickname or Surname, in the first name record or the second, gives different numbers of rows in the recordset, most of them omitting the marriage record.

3. I'm not entirely sure, but the dialogue box may be behaving differently depending how you clear an old entry, or if the old recordset window is open or not.

Kind regards

Paul

[Jane]

I could not find problem 3, but I think the other two are fixed. Can you give it another go please.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6mh7obz8fvy8o ... mes.fh_lua

[BillH]

Jane,

I gave this a go and ran into what is either a problem or my confusion. I searched on a woman's maiden name and it only found the family record for her first marriage, not subsequent marriages. Am I doing something wrong or is this the way it is supposed to work.

Thanks,

Bill

[Jane]

It's designed to find based on the name not to list all the combinations for a single person. So it only lists name combinations which match the searches. So searching for a maiden name it won't look for the Family

[BillH]

Jane,

OK... thanks. My confusion.

Bill

[Jane]

I have posted the latest version of this plugin to the Plugin Store.

If you want a full list of everyone with every name, just leave both search fields blank.

[PaulDesmondWhite]

Jane, sorry for the delay in replying, I very much appreciate all the trouble you went to in enhancing this plug-in.

It now works brilliantly for my purposes and I think it's fair to say it has become an indispensable tool for me.