Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

[pgerrish]

New to genealogy but pretty familiar with SQL databases. After testing many of software packages I have select Reunion. Simple query when adding a spouse/wife is it custom to record using her maiden name as I have been doing or to use her married name.

The reason I ask is that using maiden name as I have been, if you use the web search facility from the person card it obviously uses the maiden name and not married name.

Sorry for such a simple query but easier to aks now when there are only a few entries to change if I am not following best practice, to make reporting easier later.

Thanks

Paul
UK

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

When adding a spouse/wife is it custom to record using her maiden name as I have been doing or to use her married name.

It's nearly universal practice within genealogy to enter birth names rather than married names. If you're looking a woman up in a genealogical data base, you'll be using her maiden name, unless it's not known.

P.S. Just noticed your e-mail address. Any relation to Capt. William Gerrish (1617-1687) of Bath, England, and Salem, Massachusetts?

[pgerrish]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

It's nearly ...s it's not known.

P.S. Just noticed your e-mail address. Any relation to Capt. William Gerrish (1617-1687) of Bath, England, and Salem, Massachusetts?

Thanks. Not sure re your query Capt Gerrish. Only just started but the Gerrish brand of family come from around the Bristol Channel - both north side in Cardiff and south side around Bristol (near Bath) before the moved to Cardiff. Back to the mid 1880s they have occupations such as boatman and mariner, so there is certainly a chance they could be related. While in Halifax (Nova Scotia) a few years ago we came across Gerrish street, possibly linked with suggestion of seafarers from the Bristol Channel.

Is there specific published tree for the Capt William Gerrish?

cheers

Paul

[Paul Luning]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

Hi Paul,

The problem arises when the maiden name is unknown.

My own, personal preference is to enter her married name in the opposite case of her spouse's name and as her spouse's name. If you are keeping all known surnames in UPPERCASE, then John JONES' spouse would be Mary jones if her maiden name is unknown. I also enter all her married names in the Family View Facts Married Name, in chronological order, if I know them.

Not ideal for multiple spouses, but, at least you can tag her to one if her spouses in sorts and also spot someone who needs to be further investigated.

There are no hard and fast rules enforced by the genealogy police. It's your family, and your tree, and you are free to do whatever pleases you.

Paul

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

My own, personal preference is to enter her married name in the opposite case of her spouse's name and as her spouse's name.

Somewhat similarly, I just enter the known married name of a woman in her surname field, surrounded by brackets to indicate it's her married name not her birth name. So Mary Jones was born Mary Jones, but Mary [Jones] married a Mr. Jones but her maiden name is not known.

It's still alphabetized correctly, as the brackets are ignored; I just like keeping normal capitalization

[pgerrish]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

Paul and Dennis

Thanks for the simple suggestions re married versus maiden names especially where it is unknown. It is helpful to adopt a standard early on both in genealogy and using Reunion.

On related subject where this are two wives as the first one had died is there a way to have all children from both wives display at the bottom in the Family view when the husband (father) is showing as only the children of each wife seem to show. Alternatively is it possible to display both wives in Family view?

Thanks

Paul

[Paul Luning]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

Paul,

I'm pretty sure the tree view is the only way to see the spouses and children simultaneously.

Paul

[kmuch]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

Paul and Dennis

Thanks for the simple suggestions re married versus maiden names especially where it is unknown. It is helpful to adopt a standard early on both in genealogy and using Reunion.

When a person's surname is unknown, I use the appropriate relation's surname with a bullet (alt-8) after it. A woman married 3 times gets Jones

[Susan Freas Rogers]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

Until now, I've used UNKNOWN in the surname box, and the woman's first name followed by parenthetical citation of who she married, e.g. first name field would contain:
Mary (m Adam Sterner). Thus, in the People list, all the UNKNOWNS appear together, so if, in my research, I find a woman mentioned with her married name, I can quickly look for the first name and see if there is a woman who married someone by that surname.

Having read this thread, I think I'll be changing to the [SURNAME] style, which seems much more streamlined. It never occurred to me to use brackets and that they would be ignored in sorting. Thanks Dennis!

Susan
P.S. Also like the bullet point style for multiple spouses, thanks Kathleen!

[John Hill]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

Until now, I've used UNKNOWN in the surname box, and the woman's first name followed by parenthetical citation of who she married, e.g. first name field would contain:
Mary (m Adam Sterner). Thus, in the People list, all the UNKNOWNS appear together, so if, in my research, I find a woman mentioned with her married name, I can quickly look for the first name and see if there is a woman who married someone by that surname.

Having read this thread, I think I'll be changing to the [SURNAME] style, which seems much more streamlined. It never occurred to me to use brackets and that they would be ignored in sorting. Thanks Dennis!

Susan
P.S. Also like the bullet point style for multiple spouses, thanks Kathleen!

I take a very simplistic approach throughout my family file - when some piece of information is missing, I don't enter anything.
So if I don't have a spouse's maiden name, I leave her last name field empty.
If I have an illegitimate child and don't have a father's name (as is usually the case, and I've a lot of them), I don't provide a father - not even a dummy one.
And so on.
Reunion is smart enough to permit this without causing confusion.

[lmarker]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

For those who have been using the term "Unknown" as a surname when they do not yet know the proper surname, a cautionary note:
If you share your information this way with other people (either with the full last name of "Unknown," or an abbreviated "Unk," I guarantee this:
At some point, there will be someone with whom you share the information who will take it literally, and will pass the last name along as Unknown or Unk. (or worse, the acronym Lnu, which is actually Last Name Unknown).

[Nick]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

Like John Hill, in the case of unknown or missing data, I don't enter anything. I can't see the point of entering 'Unknown' or equivalent. Likewise, I don't put '?' in a date field if the date of an event is unknown. If the field is blank, then I don't know - easy

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

I use the maiden name when known & [Unknown] when I don't.

Searching - Don't forget that, if you put a dash before the surname in the People search box, you will get a list of all the women (including those with [Unknown] for surname) who are married to someone with that surname. The rest of the list may or may not have everyone with that surname-I've never figured that part out. However, I have found this little "trick" to be very helpful when looking for married females connected to that surname.

[donworth]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

Ha ha - didn't know about the dash. I will have to edit my wish list item now! Thanks!

[donworth]

Re: Simple query - record spouse name as married or maiden?

I was playing with the dash search. Is there a reason where it would not include everybody? If I put "Bisher" my wife comes up as one of the search results. But if I put "-Bishir" she does not (nor do I). Same seems to be true for her mother ("Mendenhall" vs "-Mendenhall"). If I put in my last name ("-Worth") my wife and I both appear in the list. Is there a limit to the number of people that can be returned in the search (we have an awful lot of Bishers)? I tried marking everyone and unmarking but that doesn't seem to affect the results.

EDIT: The dash only seems to work when the name you enter is the husband's surname. As far as I can tell it never works when the name is the wife's maiden name. However, if you can remember the wife's married name, then it finds her. So you're searching ONLY on married names - not for the spouses of birth names. However, it also includes any UNMARRIED women with that surname as their birth name. Weird! I guess I can wrap my head around that and still get what I want… maybe... I think.