My understanding of the accepted practice (obtained from the book "Getting it Right" by Mary Slawson - excellent for this sort of stuff, and uses Legacy for its examples) is that the Given and Surname fields should only contain the birth name of the individual. All alternative spellings should be listed as AKA's. You can select to include AKA's in the Name list and reports in Legacy. This ensures that searching works properly, and also if you share your data with others the database is unambiguous. I've used this practice and it seems to work fine. Even with simple names it's amazing how many alternate spellings come up!
In case you think this sort of question is trivial, "Getting it Right" dedicates 32 pages just to the correct recording of names! Rob On 4/15/05, Ed Barnard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This seems to be a universal problem. I'll mention my solution, but I'd > like to hear from the experts! > > My own most illustrious ancestor has BARNARD spelled as BERNARD on his > own headstone. Considering that he was the town clerk (and the first > one, at that), that has GOT to be tough. But, it does lend credence to > the possibility that two digits were transposed on that same headstone. > (Age 45, vs age 54, opens the possibility that his father brought an > earlier wife over from England who died shortly after childbirth.) > > I mention all this as pointing out that alternate spellings CAN give you > clues to figuring out the puzzles. But it seems to mostly mean that > different people had different levels of literacy. > > I've typed in the last name as follows: > > Barnard/Bernard > Chard (Charde) > Ford (Forde) > > I've also used the AKA field. In the case of Joseph the town clerk, I > added a specific source note with the exact text on the headstone, but > spelled it Barnard since *other* town records do spell it correctly, and > I'm a direct-line descendant. > > The trouble with any of these, is in the sorting, lists, and so on. > "Barnard Jr" and "Barnard III" show up as different surname from > Barnard. > > However, one possibility *is* to use the suffix field. I would use > surname Barnard and suffix Bernard (or in this case Bernard/Sr). Using > the suffix field, you don't confuse things that depend on matching up > surnames (primarily the web page indexes). > > I hope this helps! > > Ed > > On Thu, 2005-04-14 at 19:21, Sandra Duncan wrote: > > Just found another differently spelled name > > Had PURDY > > Just found it spelled PARDEE > > > > Have DANN listed as DAN/DANN > > but that does not make me happy > > > > also have SLAWSON-SLASON-SLAUSON > > would like to hear how others treat these kinds of things > > Have considered doing an AKA or alternate spelled name but I am lost here > > please throw out a few suggestions > > > > Love, Light, Rainbows & Blessings > > Sandra Tyler Duncan > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: > > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > > > > To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ > > > > To unsubscribe please visit: > > http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > > To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ > > To unsubscribe please visit: > http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp > Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
