List all relations European style, with two last names

[s beamer]

I'm in Mexico with my wife of 35 years, visiting her home town. I brought with us a print out of the family tree I have built up for her side of the family going back nearly 200 years. We are showing it to numerous aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, and other relatives for their comment and additions. The problem is, Mexico is one of those countries that uses two last names in all formal situations, even the phone book. The use of two last names is traditional in multiple European countries as well. All we show it to here are confused and soon get lost by the lack of the second last name. Men and single women use their father's and mother's last names. Married women use their father's and husband's last names.

It seems to me it ought to be a checkbox item in Preferences. Think how many more people in the world would find this program useful and how many fewer would be confused by this shortcoming.

I would keep a second tree just for my wife's family this way, but still leave her family in my tree for our children and such. We could have the best of both worlds.

Am I missing something? Suggestions?

[rclrocco]

Re: List all relations European style, with two last names

Interesting thread.
I think the Arab world has a "different" way of writing surnames too; different that is, compared to ours. And by ours I mean the English speaking world I suppose.

Wonder how surnames are recorded in China, where a quarter of the world lives.

.....goes off to google on "how are surnames written around the world ?".

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: List all relations European style, with two last names

The use of two last names is traditional in multiple European countries as well. All we show it to here are confused and soon get lost by the lack of the second last name.

It's a good suggestion, though invariably there'd still have to be some editing of surnames (as when Joaquin de Haro y Fernandez de Cordoba married Elena dei Conti Farini, Reunion's going to have a tough time knowing their kids are Fernandez de Cordoba y Farini.)

If this were ever implemented, it should be on a "per family" basis (with propagation to descendants unless stopped) as there will inevitably be some families who use the double surname convention, and some families who don't, in any given family file. That is, I'd like it to be a checkbox per family, on the family card, and not for all families, in Preferences.

[ttl]

Re: List all relations European style, with two last names

I've never found this to be an issue--I simply put both last names in the last name field (e.g. Last Name = Coello y Marruz).

And with a Swedish background, I'm very used to overriding the autofilled last name to insert the patronymic.

My point being that while it might be nice to have some different autofill options, the current arrangement doesn't stop a researcher from recording names the way he wants.

[Brian Millo]

Re: List all relations European style, with two last names

I've never found this to be an issue--I simply put both last names in the last name field (e.g. Last Name = Coello y Marruz).

And with a Swedish background, I'm very used to overriding the autofilled last name to insert the patronymic.

My point being that while it might be nice to have some different autofill options, the current arrangement doesn't stop a researcher from recording names the way he wants.

I see your point, but I think your search in the Reunion Index for Coello y Marruz would turn up precisely nothing. Wouldn't it? It does for me in my simpler "de Filippis" and "de Leyne" etc., and I have to remember to search for only the final part of the surname: Filippis, Leyne, etc.

[ttl]

Re: List all relations European style, with two last names

I see your point, but I think your search in the Reunion Index for Coello y Marruz would turn up precisely nothing. Wouldn't it? It does for me in my simpler "de Filippis" and "de Leyne" etc., and I have to remember to search for only the final part of the surname: Filippis, Leyne, etc.

If I typed "Coello" in the index, I'd get everyone who's father's last name started with Coello, which is pretty much what I would want it to do. If I typed in Marruz, I'd get everyone who's father's last name started with Marruz, which is pretty much what I would want it to do.

It is true that it would not pick up anyone whose mother's last name started that way.

That being said, it seems as if a lot of researchers spend a lot more time in the index than I do. If I were searching on occurrences of a name, I'd be using the Find Anything feature.

FWIW, I have nothing against Reunion working the way other people want it to... it just seemed worth mentioning last year that there is a way to record two last names, even if it isn't ideal for everyone.

[ttl]

Re: List all relations European style, with two last names

BTW, the search in the index works the same way as the sorting you have set in the index preferences. If you want to be able to search on "de", you can have the index sort on the whole last name. Search on "Prefix Words" in the manual for more details.