One name many spellings

[mlmetz5612]

How will the new Reunion handle multiple spellings of the same name. I want to keep the spellings accurate, according to the sources I am using for each person. I just joined the One Name Guild so this tracking accurate spellings will be a from here forward thing. Thanks for your help. MaryLu

[AE Palmer]

Re: One name many spellings

How will the new Reunion handle multiple spellings of the same name. I want to keep the spellings accurate, according to the sources I am using for each person. I just joined the One Name Guild so this tracking accurate spellings will be a from here forward thing. Thanks for your help. MaryLu

Version 10 handles multiple spellings the same as Reunion always has -- NOT. It treats each variant as its own surname. If your data, like mine, contains numerous variants, you must come to grips with the problem of "Do I normalize my data or not?" It is very much a trade-off -- "Accuracy" in spelling vs. normalized data for fast, accurate and complete search capability. In the end I chose to normalize my variants with a couple of execptions.

Besides, I have found that many of the variations come from individuals who could not read or write and "spelled" their name(s) differently at different times. Or that the recording clerk was careless.

As a sop toward accuracy in surname spelling, I do use the variant(s) within sources and stories, notes, etc.

[Martha Lyle]

Re: One name many spellings

I've found it helpful to include variant spellings in the Suffix field. I use the normalized data in the Last Name field. My only exception to this is where the variant becomes the normal, continued for several generations. This shows me where the family name became divided into two different spellings. Still somewhat of a problem in the transitional generations, some used one, some the other!

[Bowes Researcher]

Re: One name many spellings

I wonder if there could be a field for Alternate Last Name. You could either record the source spelling as primary and the standardized as alternate, or vice versa. Then maybe a toggle or a permanent settings preference, when searching to include Alternate Last Name.

Martha Bowes

[lmarker]

Re: One name many spellings

Again, a reason I would like to be able to search on Alternate names.

[John Hill]

Re: One name many spellings

Again, a reason I would like to be able to search on Alternate names.

This would help me too - I have one family that is Dogood/Doegood/Doogood, and another that uses Simonite/Simonet/Simmonite (and other variants) pretty interchangeably.

But I blanch at the prospect of going back through all the existing records and adding the alternates...

[Bowes Researcher]

Re: One name many spellings

For now I am using the standard name in the last name field, and entering the variation in the note fields for the events/facts where the source uses it. Similar with place names, which change all around in early Ireland, where they are standardized to the modern in the place field for geocoding, but variations in the notes.

Martha

[ttl]

Re: One name many spellings

I've been watching this thread with interest and am wondering if anyone has tried putting the last name a person used in the Last Name field and using a normalized family name flag to indicate that the person is a part of that family. It would be easy to search on the normalized name via the flag while staying true to the preferred name of the individual.

[theKiwi]

Re: One name many spellings

One mechanism I've used is to use a last name of the type

Moffat or Moffet or Moffatt

when I encounter different spellings of a person's name.

Since the primary target of my "publishing" is my TNG site online, doing this means that the alternate spellings all make it in to the Page Title and so will get indexed by Google et al perhaps more easily than if it's just a word on the page somewhere else.

It also means that when anyone searches my data they can find a person right away by any of the several alternates when searching by first and last name, without them having to be savvy enough to think to try the alternate spellings or just starting out with the first few letters.

Roger

[Robert Godfrey]

Re: One name many spellings

This is a classic "many-to-one" relationship