Rule #11: Women are always entered with their maiden name.
Otherwise you end up with a profile name like this:
Mary Hester Ann "Annie" Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh
No joke, there is a tree, well probably lots of them, with all women listed this way. On this particular tree the records attached, from what I can tell, are actually correct. All but one census has Ann or Annie, the one that doesn't has Mary A.. There is no information on the profile about where the name Hester came from. Her gravestone only has one given name, Ann. Of course that's not the issue. The issue is the surnames. The surnames of her spouses are Luxton, Hunter, Baylor, Ratliff, and Routh. Hers is Maples. Just Maples. Only Maples.
Do a search from her profile and it will need to be edited every time since it will automatically include the spouses surnames in the search. Do a search from Mary's profile and you're searching for: Mary Hester Ann "Annie" Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh.
Mr. Luxton did not marry Mary Hester Ann Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh. He married Mary Hester Ann Maples. Mr. Hunter did not marry Mary Hester Ann Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh. He married Mary Hester Ann Maples. Mr. Baylor did not marry Mary Hester Ann Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor...You get the idea.
There are a few instances when you will have to edit a search anyway. For some modern day marriages you might need to remove the husband's surname from the search. You'll also want to make a note on the profile if a woman didn't take her husband's surname.
If you've crossed a border or an ocean you'll want to look into naming practices in that country. For example, in Mexico women do not take the surname of their spouse and their full name includes their father's surname followed by their mother's surname. And then there are patronymic surnames.
We have enough to deal with. Don't complicate things further.
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Otherwise you end up with a profile name like this:
Mary Hester Ann "Annie" Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh
Do a search from her profile and it will need to be edited every time since it will automatically include the spouses surnames in the search. Do a search from Mary's profile and you're searching for: Mary Hester Ann "Annie" Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh.
Mr. Luxton did not marry Mary Hester Ann Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh. He married Mary Hester Ann Maples. Mr. Hunter did not marry Mary Hester Ann Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor Ratliff Routh. He married Mary Hester Ann Maples. Mr. Baylor did not marry Mary Hester Ann Maples Luxton Hunter Baylor...You get the idea.
There are a few instances when you will have to edit a search anyway. For some modern day marriages you might need to remove the husband's surname from the search. You'll also want to make a note on the profile if a woman didn't take her husband's surname.
If you've crossed a border or an ocean you'll want to look into naming practices in that country. For example, in Mexico women do not take the surname of their spouse and their full name includes their father's surname followed by their mother's surname. And then there are patronymic surnames.
We have enough to deal with. Don't complicate things further.
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NEXT POST: Coming Soon
My 2x great-grandfather was born Frantz Månsson. When he immigrated to the US from Sweden in 1869 he changed his name to Frank Cederlöf. No mention of this name change was ever mentioned in his naturalization papers. I've surmised he took the last name of the August Cederlöf, the man under whom he apprenticed as a tailor. I list both names in his profile so that the US Cederlöfs and the Swedish Månssons can find him. I haven't had any Swedes find me yet but I'm still hoping that one of his brother's or sister's descendents might be looking.
ReplyDeleteI've been surprised by the number of Swedes that changed their names after immigrating. Mine went from Matson to Sundberg. Obviously in your case and in mine it wasn't an issue of assimilation since they chose names that are still very Swedish. Wish we could know what the thinking was behind it.
DeletePrior to the advent of Social Security you may not find an official name change document. People could change their names, or the spelling of their names, at will :-P
Thanks for reading, NotMykl!
The preview button deleted my lengthy comment, so I will simply say, "Research Scandinavian patronymics versus location or farm names".
ReplyDelete