That is true about an inflated family file and all those variations.
For abbreviations like Robt (Robert) and Jno (John), I normally spell them out since they're obvious. Something like "Hattie" (I have a lot of Hattie's) or "Fannie" I have to assume are nicknames so I have to list them. Sometimes the records show different spellings of the name or the middle name is used for a first name. I had this with one ancestor and discovered that because he used his middle name (Mathew) as a first name and his first name (Ignatius) as his middle, his wife had a problem receiving his pension money because they thought it was a different person. In that case, I listed his name switch because he did this often in the records. Bill Boswell From: Brian L. Lightfoot [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 12:45 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [LegacyUG] When to use AKAs I’m wondering if all those that responded saying that they record every AKA along with the source where they found it really mean that they record every common variation of a name. What I mean specifically if someone’s given name was Robert, do they record an instance of Bob, and Bobbie, and Rob, and Robbie. If the name was Franklin, do they record Frank and Frankie? So far I’ve tended to ignore these common variations as additional AKAs and have only recorded the unusual ones such as “Stretch”, “Slim”, “Bones”, etc. It just seems to me that if you record each and every instance of a spelling variation that you find, you end up with a family file that is grossly inflated in sheer numbers. I guess what I’m getting at is there has to be a little common sense applied here. For example, if you do a search for someone named Robert on FamilySeach, it will automatically include all those common variations to include Rob, Bob, etc. Brian in CA Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
