* Query: Auto-text surnames of married women

[ChrisRead]

I have tried to figure this out from the help, but I'm a bit stumped.

I was using KEYPERSON and INFORMANT for a new version of the death auto-text 1969-2007. The problem I have is also demonstrated if using the default template as well. Simply put a married woman in as the dead person and the informant.

As part of testing it I ended up using the same woman as the dead person and as informant in order to observe the behaviour. This is obviously not possible in real life.

For the dead person:
KEYPERSON.SN is being used which gives her latest married surname which is not correct as her maiden name. For the full name =LINKIND[{KEYPERSON.ID}%{KEYPERSON.FULL}] is used and is the correct surname married surname.

For the Informant:
Informant name is done using =LINKIND[{INFORMANT.ID}%{INFORMANT.FULL}]] and is giving the maiden surname, which would not be right for the informant full name.

Looking at the help I'm not sure how I can get at the particular surname I need under the different circumstances for it to make sense on the output.

I hope that makes sense.

[NickWalker]

As I've always said Chris, auto-text makes a 'best guess' (that AS can do currently) but the transcript will almost always need to be edited afterwards. As you're using the linked version you can just double click on the name to edit it. But only do this after auto-text has done its stuff.

[tatewise]

This is a perennial problem that has no suitable automated solution.
There are just too many inconclusive circumstances to correctly identify the surname of a woman who has been married.
That is particularly true if she has been married more than once and possibly widowed or divorced.
The date of the current event versus the dates of those matrimonial events has to be considered.
Some women take their husband's surname, and some don't.
Also, some women change their surname when divorced and others don't.
Then there are cultural differences that don't always follow western society norms.

[ChrisRead]

Thanks for that, I figured it was a difficult problem to deal with. I wouldn't have really asked about it normally, for this reason.

The reason I did, was because the same individual is producing two different surnames in the same template depending on which keyword is being used. I didn't understand why that was, and thought it may mean there was a way. So, its as much out of curiosity why, as it was about how.

On the link use, I just copied what was there, but as I don't have links enabled in AS I don't get hyperlinks in the output.

Cheers all.

[NickWalker]

If you're not using the links then obviously the text can just be manually edited in the usual way.

I believe that the reason why there is a different result for the KEYPERSON and INFORMANT is because you have the option 'Use last married name for deceased female' ticked in the Death settings. It's also worth pointing out that the 'maiden' name of the deceased female is then displayed incorrectly on that template (because there aren't any options to specify married/unmarried names on a keyword basis). It would of course be possible for me to do a lot more work on trying to get the Auto-text to make even better 'guesses' and add more keywords, etc. but this isn't a priority for me at the moment.

Cheers

Nick

[ChrisRead]

Thanks for the explanation Nick.

There are so many options for customising that I tend to forget to even consider going and having a look to see if something may be having an effect (not your fault).

At least I understand why two different surnames were occurring, which is what mystified me. I'm not looking for any change to AS on this one (but you could put it in the to-do list for some long distant future ). I'm pretty sure I've used up my AS suggestions quota for now I suspect , but I'm sure "I'll be back".

I've done a couple of Parish Register auto-text template 1754-1812 and 1812-1837 based on the registers I've seen so far. Once the next realease comes out that is at least 7.1.5 like I have, I could consider uploading to the KB for brutal review .