* Surnames

[ricklach]

A great deal of my research is focused on French-Canadian records. In my family tree there are a wide variation of names within the family tree which turned into their own branches. Any one familiar with "dit" names will be familiar with the issue. To use but one example, records relating to Jean Baptiste Lampron dit Desfossés may be found with numerous different spellings (eg: Lampron, Laspron, Lespron, Lamphron, Lemprohon, Lampro, Lamproe, Défossé, Défossés, Defoce, and so on). Compounding this issue is the fact that his children may be found under the compound name, a single name variation, or an entirely new name like Geoffroi or Geoffroy. Over the years these new names became their surnames and a new branch was created. I have more than 14 generations of all families in my genealogical study, and I made it a point to record all of the name variations that I found and assign then to a generic name category such that all people with any name variation could be found under their generic names (eg. Défossé, Défossés, Defoce, etc were all assigned to the generic name Desfossés, which is the accepted spelling). I want to follow this over into FH and I am looking for suggestions on how best to approach the issue. I first thought of using tags or flags, or named lists but I am unsure on how to approach the task in the GEDCOM environment (I am still a regular TMG user). All suggestions would be welcome and I would note that all of the name variations for an individual in FH are in the "Name +..." list opposite the "Name" tag already.

[tatewise]

I'm not sure what you mean by tags, but flags and named lists are not part of standard GEDCOM as they are FH extensions.

Multiple names are best recorded in the way they have been imported from TMG into FH by using multiple instances of the Name field which is standard GEDCOM.
It is not possible to further describe each Name in the way that TMG uses tags, except by adding a Note.
That has to be done on the All tab of the Property Box by right-clicking on any one of the Name instances and choosing Add Note > Add Note to this Record, but such Notes are not very visible anywhere.
GEDCOM 5.5.1 does add a Type descriptor sub-field to each Name field that would mimic the way TMG works, so you could ask Calico Pie to add that feature.

I think TMG allows any chosen Name instance to be associated with each fact and its narrative sentence.
There is nothing like that in FH or GEDCOM.

BTW: In the Records Window the Name Filter top left usually operates on all instances of the Name of not just the Individual but also the Husbands' Surname of women. See the Options settings.

[Jane]

I don't have so many variations as you, but what I do on Facts where the name recorded is not the "normal" one, I simple add a note to the fact, stating the name recorded and of course the source transcript will always show the name as recorded as well.

One option to "keep" them all together could be to use a Group Caste membership standard attribute or a custom "Family Group" Attribute. These have the advantage over Flags in that you can have multiple values and the Group Caste one is supported fairly widely.

[JohnnyCee]

Rick,

What method were you using in TMG to record "generic" names?

Some TMG users add an alternate name to each person that needs it where the alternate name uses the generic surname as chosen by the researcher. When using this method. the researcher is not claiming that the person used the generic surname; the extra name record is used for indexing/finding purposes only and is often suppressed from normal output.

I presume the generic name method described above could be used in FH, but that depends on whether you can get the behavior you want. For example, if you can assign a specific name record type to the generic name, you can control how generic names are treated in certain output. In GedSite, you could include the generic name in the index but omit it in the person's profile.

If you describe exactly how you recorded generic names in TMG that may help FH users translate it to FH for you.