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How to list surnames that have changed

Kaja Hage

January 13, 2015 13:52

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My grandfather changed the family surname many years ago while his children were teenagers. How do I add these family members to the tree so that their birth surname, new surname and married surname are all listed so that correct information can be cross referenced? Eg. John Smith married Eve White. Eve is listed as Eve Smith ( White) John Smith and Eve Smith have a daughter, Judy Smith They change their surname to Smythe ie John Smythe, Eve Smythe and Judy Smythe - how are Eve's previous surnames acknowledged? Daughter Judy gets married to David North and becomes Judy North - how are her previous surnames acknowledged? Is there a protocol for this so that any future searchers can link data to the correct people? Thanks

2 comments

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  Jeff, Geni Curator January 23, 2015 19:23

  I would just add the additional name to the AKA field.  For John, I would list his name as John Smythe (Smith).  His last name being Smythe and his birth name being Smith.  For females, I'd just use what it was changed to and list the birth name in the AKA.  So Eve Smythe (White) if she actually had her name changed to Smythe, then list Eve Smith in the AKA.

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  Leanne M (Volunteer Curator - Australia) - on walkabout🇦🇺 March 02, 2016 20:41

  How does the smart searches work for name changes ?  Or the surname project?

  Many members of our family changed names, so you would want to record every name so that if someone was manually searching for them they could find them - but the auto searches would be looking for "Smyth Jones" rather than "Smyth" or "Jones"