Family Historian User Group

Mary Bloggs married Will Smith - I have no problem completing all boxes for them. She is now Mary Smith. When she goes on to partner Ed Brown, I want her main name box to say Mary Smith but I seem only to be able to put both names as alternatives and the one I choose as primary is the one that shows in the main box for both marriages when for one of them it is wrong. Hope that makes sense - am I doing something wrong?

ID:4344

I think the usual convention is always to use the birth name as the principal name for an individual, however often the name changes because of marriage, divorce, etc.  Certainly there is no provision within the GEDCOM 5.5 Standard for recording the date period for which a particular version of the name is current.  It is, though, possible to define a custom event which could record the use of a different name, complete with the relevant date(s).

You have to understand that in Family Historian and Gedcom, a person only has one name - their birth name. They can have alternative names, but generally this is used to give nicknames, other spellings, and common names. The name field in Gedcom is not designed to hold a woman's married name. This is because it can be inferred from the marriage.

It is not wrong to have a woman listed with her birth name even though she has married multiple times. The reason is that a woman's name depends on the context in which her name is being used. A diagram is a snapshot with no timeline of a family structure and it would not be possible to use a woman's married name if she married multiple times. In a narrative report which has a timeline, then it is possible to use married names since the report will list the marriage and the new name can be used after this event and could be used in reports of subsequent marriages. It would also be obvious from the narrative who is being discussed so the reader will know that the same person is being mentioned even though with different names.

Family Historian doesn't currently support the display of women's married names if they are married. There is a wish list item related to married names at http://www.fhug.org.uk/wishlist/wldispl ... lwlref=270 for an explicit married name field which can be used in reports/diagram.

If you are producing a diagram with both her husbands on it, then it just can't be done since she will only have one box and one name. If you are producing two separate diagrams and it's really important to you personally for whatever reason to show her as Mary Smith in one of them then I would just edit her name to be Mary Smith, produce the diagram and then correct her name back to her birth name.

Thank you both. That is all quite clear, I understand now why it works as it does in that area. Thank you for your assistance. MaxD