* Sorting by surname to include married names?

[E Wilcock]

This may not be possible. But I think it worth asking.
There are many lists now on line which record people in alphabetical order by the surname they had on a particular date.

I follow genealogical convention and enter the birth surname of the women when I can. And now regret it because the birth name becomes their default name and I no longer have the people listed as they were on the original source.

If I want to move down the list again I have to check two columns, the men and unmarried women have their birth names in one column and the surnames of married women are in a different column.

Is it possible to write a data reference with the OR operator. To have surname of husband but, if that is lacking, to have birth surname?

[DavidNewton]

Trying to find a person's surname at any given time is tricky. It is possible to produce a column which shows either the final married surname or the birth surname.

=TextIf(EXISTS(%INDI.FAMS[Last]>HUSB[1]>%),%INDI.FAMS[Last]>HUSB[1]>NAME[1]:SURNAME%,%INDI.NAME[1]:SURNAME%)

In this reference if you replace Last by 1 then women who have given birth to children before marriage will be listed by birth surname and not by a married name.

David

Added in Edit. It occurs to me that you probably want the given name as well: this should do it

=CombineText(TextIf(EXISTS(%INDI.FAMS[Last]>HUSB[1]>%),%INDI.FAMS[Last]>HUSB[1]>NAME[1]:SURNAME%,%INDI.NAME[1]:SURNAME%)," ",%INDI.NAME[1]:GIVEN_ALL%)

[tatewise]

Yes, David has introduced the point that women can have multiple relationships.
For some the Name of partner/husband is known, but others are not.
For some they may have actually Married, but others may not.

The Surname on each Certificate can vary throughout a woman's life depending on how many times she married.
And that is only for conventional Western civilisations. Some people and some civilisations have other Surname schemes.

So the Data Ref Expression to cover all those possibilities is extremely complex.
Please give a clearer definition of exactly which Surnames you want listed in Columns.

Having said all that the Individuals list Filter on the Records Window can take into account Husband's Surnames.
Click the Options... button and ensure all Name Filters for Individuals are ticked, and note that it can also detect Alternate Names, etc.
Then when the Last Name filter is entered, any Surnames for the person and their partners will match.

[E Wilcock]

Thank you both. I dont need all the names from every marriage. Nor am I working with a complete project.

I have a group of people listed by surname on a source series of documents and have them listed in fh in a named list.
Thanks to my entry of birth names, the order no longer coincides with the original document.

If one is working through page images on line that are slow to load or is reeling through a microfilm, it is useful to work through in alphabetical order finding the people you want.

I pasted David Newtons suggested text into the column field and it looks to me as if it is just what I wanted.

I am very grateful. And I have pasted it also into my Word document guide to fh.

=TextIf(EXISTS(%INDI.FAMS[Last]>HUSB[1]>%),%INDI.FAMS[Last]>HUSB[1]>NAME[1]:SURNAME%,%INDI.NAME[1]:SURNAME%)

Thank you for the trouble you took to write it. If you have a moment could you please explain the sentence? I pretty much understand that if there is in the individuals family relations a husband then give his surname, but am not sure about the % % usage that calls for the birth surname to go in the list if the other one doesnt exist.

I am astonished this is possible and sure it will be useful to other people. Just as an example where one finds women are listed under married names, the shipping lists as used in yesterday's TV documentary on the ship the Viceroy of India. And the UK Enemy Alien cards.

[DavidNewton]

To explain the formula:
The TextIf checks to see if the last listed Spouse Family contains a "husband". If it does then the first expression is shown, i.e. the surname of the husband
%INDI.FAMS[Last]>HUSB[1]>NAME[1]:SURNAME%
If it does not contain a husband then the second expression is shown, i.e. the surname of the individual
%INDI.NAME[1]:SURNAME%

I have to say there are situations where this excludes any married name. For example, I have in my file widows who gave birth years after the husband died and with no father listed, hence no husband. This will lead to the situation where the birth name is shown and any married names are excluded.

David

[Jane]

You might also want to check out the Search Any Name Plugin. As a plugin it can list everyone with all their names. So for example I am listed under both Jane Taubman and Jane Mullins.

https://www.family-historian.co.uk/plug ... ntry?id=34

You can leave the contains prompt blank to get everyone or enter partial names to find different people.

You could modify the plugin to check for existence in a named list or to add a column to show that they do.

[E Wilcock]

Thank you very much, both David and Jane.

David, I cant tell you how happy I am to have this solution of yours. Recreating the original list I had - the equivalent of a passenger list. And thank you for explaining the data reference you wrote.

I think you are warning me that if any of the women was on the list under the name of a second husband, she would now be wrongly named - as far as this list was concerned. So I ran a query for anyone twice married. The custom query to find married women's names and then added a row to exclude anyone not on my list. There are two women - so I will remember that and deal with them separately.
I have been through the list once against one set of records and the plan was to go through it again, so I really cursed myself for losing the original name order.

Jane thank you for reminding me - tho on this occasion not what I was in search of. I start with a list and hope to find out who the people were.