* Alternate Names

[johnmorrisoniom]

This request may be too late for the next version, but would it be possible (especially for census entries), that instead of the option to change a name (or as well as) there is an option to add an alternate name?

ID:6937

[brianlummis]

As a relatively new user of Ancestral Sources I have resurrected this old post. The opportunity to use Alternate Names, especially with Census entries, would be appreciated as my family name has many variants dreamed up by the enumerator. I find that I have to alter the Autotext entry on numerous occasions whereas if the Alternate Name could be added/entered on the main entry this could be eliminated. I appreciate that it might not be a simple thing to include but it would be a massive time saver for me.

[CloudedGenie]

I just found this post while trying to work around this problem for baptism and death records... I had predominantly Dutch predecessors (that just took the French surnames that arrived at the Cape and recorded them phonetically) until the English arrived and they then just recorded it the way they thought it should be spelled -- and my family clearly had some speech impediment or mumbled under their beards

The only practical way I found to deal with this, is to use a "standardised" or "most common" spelling for that person as the primary name (sometimes that specific combination might never have been used in any one document) and record every alternate spelling and the document where it was used.

Now that I am ready to start entering my records through AS, I am wondering how best to do this.

I know I can manually edit the source transcript afterwards, making sure each name is spelled as per the original. The death notices include the list of children (and whether adult or minor, and often name of husband for daughters), which makes them extremely useful. I am adding 2-way associations and could potentially add it in the note, but would still have to create an alternate name (or is that not the best way to handle this)? These associations may still change into custom witness roles, I have not yet made up my mind. I am open to other suggestions as well.

How do you suggest I approach this?

[tatewise]

What are you using 2-way associations for?
Is it for recording the list of children and husbands?
If so, why not add them as children of the deceased, and add husbands to them?
They can all then cite the same Death Notice Source record.

You say you "manually edit the source transcript afterwards".
Did you know you can edit the Text box within AS and thus avoid editing the Source record afterwards?
That method is recommended in the AS help pages.

The detailed recording of every single spelling of names as Alternative Names is a personal preference.
The spellings are all recorded in the Source records, so I am tempted not to replicate very similar names elsewhere.
We are all familiar with the problem of illiterate people and accents causing problems for enumerators.
As long as the names are recognisably the same, why record all those imperfections.

[CloudedGenie]

Thanks for the prompt reply, Mike.

I am trying to find a way to attach sources to the parent-child relationship itself. In my du Raan/Duraan family we have a few names that were used repeatedly, along with some cousin-marriages just to confuse things. Connecting these correctly, have been a nightmare, and there are a number of horrible wrong trees on online, resulting from an incorrect merge done years ago on Geni...

For me, part of my source documentation is - why do I say this Jan Hendrik Harms is the one that was the son of Ixxx and I123 rather than...referred to here, rather than the 3 other possible candidates... I was hoping that this "association could give me something to attach "overwhelming evidence" to. In the past I have simply cited the Death Notice source against the name or the children and husbands.

Usually only children that are still alive when the parent passes away is listed on the Death Notice, which gives an convenient way to estimate a date range for the pre-deceased children. For this reason, I want to add a custom event/witness role with a sentence "XX was mentioned as an adult child on the death notice of her mother YY".

When I mentioned "manually edit the source transcript afterwards" I meant after pressing "Auto" and before saving.

I am not too concerned with "spelling mistakes" and recording those as alternate names, but there are many of these records that I only found by searching for the spouse, or names where the link is only clear because I understand the naming rules. In these cases, it becomes easy to link the wrong people, so I prefer to record the names a bit more clearly.

[LornaCraig]

For me, part of my source documentation is - why do I say this Jan Hendrik Harms is the one that was the son of Ixxx and I123 rather than...

There is some advice about this in the "What's new in Version 6.1" section in the Family Historian website:

You can now add source citations for all relationships, including parent-child relationships. To add a source citation for person X as father of person Y, use the Witnesses window for X’s birth event, to add person Y with role of ‘father’. You can then add source citations for Y in this role, with respect to X’s birth. A new sentence template code is used to prevent unwanted sentences being generated for this, in narrative reports. You can use the same technique to add source citations for adoptive parents. Adding a source citation for a spouse relationship has always been possible, by simply adding source citations for their marriage.

Regarding your point about the parent's death notice being evidence that a child was still alive, when I find evidence that someone was still alive at a certain date I sometimes create a death event with a date of ‘after....’, entering a brief explanation in the Note field and citing the source. This avoids using a custom event or witness role.

[tatewise]

Have you seen how_to:recording_credibility_of_family_relationships|> Recording Credibility of Family Relationships?
That may give you some other ideas.

[CloudedGenie]

I have seen the Birth Witness facts - that was what initially gave me the idea to use the associations...

There are many of the records in my database which have no birth date (and therefore no birth record) and never will. The best I can hope for is the baptism records (the later ones recorded a date of birth as well) or a calculated birth date from the Death Notice (some will go as far as stating the age in years, months and days. I have been adding "empty" marriage records for ages, but have never done that for Birth records. I will experiment a bit, because this may be a much simpler and cleaner solution!

Without using associations, what would be the simplest and most efficient way to get the children listed on the death notice document, linked to the AS source and appearing in the auto transcript generated?

[tatewise]

Did you see the Parents Family Note Citations suggestion?
That does not require a Birth Event.

Regarding the children listed on the death notice document, I'm afraid it will need some manual donkey work.

Their names can only be edited manually into the Auto Text transcript.

You could add the Children (and their Husbands) within AS.
On its Tools > Options > General tab see Whole person and name citations options.
These can add citations of the Source record to new Names or whole new Individual records.

Another way to get them all linked to the Source record is to use the Automatic Source Citations feature.
Enable the feature and select the Source, then add each Child to the Parents, and any Husband to the Child.
Every new Individual will automatically gain a whole record Source Citation.
Similarly, any Facts you added will get the same Source Citation.
So take care to disable Automatic Source Citations when no more citations are required.