* Given names and Surnames

[redvanman]

I just noticed that the names of individuals in my project are recorded in two ways:

• Names of individuals that I imported have a given name record and a surname record (presumably because the imported GEDCOM was coded this way.

• Names that I typed into FH myself do not.

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I have worked with this data for several years, and FH seems to pick out the parts of the name successfully, whichever way the names are recorded.
So my question is - should I care? Are there any hidden benefits/pitfalls from working one way or the other?

Thanks
Alyn

[tatewise]

FH does not use the Given and Surname fields. They only exist for GEDCOM 5.5 compatibility.
FH only uses the Name field to determine Given /Surname/ details.

If you check the Name > more (+)... details then Given and Surname are not offered. They only exist on the All tab.

Those fields would have been imported from another product and can be safely deleted.

After importing from another product it is important to perform an in-depth review of the data and remove any anomalies.

[redvanman]

Thanks Mike,
I will delete these records

ALyn

[jelv]

I've just noticed this when importing a GEDCOM from Ancestry and realised I have a lot of records with name parts.

I hate inconsistency - is there a quick way (plugin?) to clean these up?

[tatewise]

John, I assume you are referring to Given and Surname, or similar unwanted sub-fields.
Create a Query to list all such sub-fields. You can then select the appropriate Result Set column of cells and delete them.

[jelv]

Thanks for the pointer - I've got rid of all the Given and Surname.

Are there any other common redundant subfields that crop up in imported GEDCOM files?

[tatewise]

John, I suspect there probably are such redundant fields, but it depends on which product produced the GEDCOM and what data had been entered by the user. They generally have minimal side-effects and once discovered are easily removed as you have discovered.

It is more common for unwanted fields to be imported as Uncategorised Data Fields (UDF) that are dealt with by the techniques for Handling Uncategorised Data Fields.

However, there are many other incompatibilities in GEDCOM files as discussed in Importing to Family Historian.

[davidf]

John, I assume you are referring to Given and Surname, or similar unwanted sub-fields.
Create a Query to list all such sub-fields. You can then select the appropriate Result Set column of cells and delete them.

If you are coming at this from a non "First-names/Last-name/" environment (e.g. Vincent Van Goch, Ursula von der Leyen), the Surname Field (and Surname Prefix Field) is wanted (the Given field usually being the remainder of the Name).

I tried a while back to formulate a wish list request for an option to "switch on handling of name parts".

See Internationalisation and Name Structures for the most recent expression of the requirement, and (possibly more helpfully if coming cold to the discussion which stretched over 6 pages) what I thought it could look like if enabled;
Dialogues for Internationalisation and Name Structures