Hi Sue,
I would enter the surname into Legacy as it was entered on
whatever record I find. If I find the same person with
multiple spellings of their surname in different records,
then I will pick the one that was either most used, or that
the person was generally known by (if I know that), and use
that spelling, making an entry in notes indicating the
alternate spellings, and usually entering an AKA as well.
One place where I definitely use the same surname spelling
every time is in naming image files. I choose a "standard"
spelling for a surname line and use that spelling for every
image file name for members of that line. That way they all
sort in an orderly fashion, making it easier for me to find
a particular image, or document. So a digital image of a
birth record document for both a SMITH and a SMYTHE (who
were in the same line) would be named in my folders as
"SMITH_John_James_Birth_Rec_1879_Aug_10_Lawrence_Twp_Lawrence_Co_OH"
and
"SMITH_George_Birth_Rec_1838_May_4_Ironton_Lawrence_Co_OH"
I would likely add a -SMYTHE- to the second record with the
leading and trailing dashes indicating an alternative
spelling, so that the record would look like this:
"SMITH_-SMYTHE-_George_Birth_Rec_1838_May_4_Ironton_Lawrence_Co_OH"
That way a search with Windows Explorer would find the
record no matter which way I spelled it in the search field.
I have developed a standard for naming image files that has
served me very well over man years, even when dealing with
thousands of image files. I have documented that standard in
a PDF paper ("Describe Your Photos In Their Filenames.pdf")
which I will be happy to send to any subscriber if they
request it in a private e-mail. The last time I made the
offer to send the standard I received well over 100
requests, so please do not send such requests via this
e-mailing list as they really clutter up the mail. :-)
John Zimmerman
Mesa, AZ
On 10-Sep-13 12:16 PM, Sue Anderson wrote:
> Can I ask for guidance on surnames?
> Is it better to stick to a general surname for a family
> and put all others in akas or should I put what is
> actually on each record as the main name. Index view would
> be difficult.
> For example one English parish has
> 1608 Eliz d Simon Ayres
> 1611 William s Symon Aires
> 1617 Simon son of Simon Eire
> 1673 William son William Eyre
> In the same register there is Air, Aire, Ayre, Ayer, Eire,
> Eyre, Eyer + s on some and even Hare! Legacy gives the
> father’s name so should I leave that for children and put
> the others in akas?
> Sue Anderson
>
>
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