Consensus on using Maiden Names

Think of surname as "surname used currently - or final surname".

There are several uses for Geni. 1- long ago ancestors, 2-cousins getting to know each other, 3-comparing documents to names used.

#2 & 3 is where knowing both the birth and final surname is useful.

Most of my female relatives legally took their husband's name and used it on most documents during their life.

Nicknames or aliases are different from names that were legally changed.

My aunt and grandmother didn't learn her recorded name until she applied for a passport 60 years ago. Apparently the mid-wife had told the authorities a name she herself liked, not the name my grandmother wanted !

So my aunt has two legal first names, and two legal surnames.

I've entered them all in Geni.

In short, enter all the names by which they were known. Use the fields provided if available. If couples were married or not, you show that under relationships.

I am using Birth Name for Maiden Name for women, Last Name as the name on the person's death certificate, and AKA to include previous last names if they were married multiple times.

Moving Nickname to the main profile page was a good move.

Just to let know (and I don't want to start a big discussion again about this) but genealogists usually use a person last name at birth in a name field called Surname/Last Name, some genealogists also do it on Geni.

There will probably come other changes to the naming fields here on Geni. It's probable that Last Name and Birth Surname will change place. Geni is also looking into other things when it comes to names, but the specifics aren't reveiled yet.

I do not know how many times that I have stated that; if you CODE, under relationships, the proper order that people were married, (the coding must be done for each person involved), then the LAST spouse would appear on the tree NEXT to them...the first would be furthest away.....so if you LOOK at the tree it should be simple to tell what PROBABLE name someone (woman) was buried under...and what would appear on the death certificate....

It constantly amazes me to find how few "relationships' are coded AT ALL, say nothing about BOTH people showing the relationship.

...

P.S. Check you G-mail messages....I am down to -0-....

Well I like to use birth/ maiden name for woman's last name. Easier to follow her line that way. Also if a man has more than one wife I put the children with his last name under the correct mother. Not all under him as it gets confusing if he has say four wives and names all the male children from each wife the same. As happened in the case of all Colin Campbells. One of then had several wives and mistresses and all of them had a Colin Campbell and all the Colin Campbells had at least one Colin Campbell. It's the best way so you can sort all of them out.

The catagory should be last name period and another section for maiden for woman's birth name since more than likely it's diferent , altho not always, from her married name.

Janice I agree with you. Any book I have used in various gen. rooms which cover many English lines do use the maiden name.You go to the person you want see what number they are and what line . then you back up to there line, which of course starts with the father's line but then shows the mother name and her line and so on and so and so on. You are correct. Now if you going to follow the wife's probate and will if she had one then you would use her married name. Death records would use her last married name.Birth record would have her maiden/birth name. It totally depends on which record at what time of her life you are researching.

Reni is also correct but Remi I think a big discussion will start again as people have already mention American in a bad light again and we should be doing it the European way. Well ,what about doing it the way they do it in China. First name last last name first.You can not make everyone happy. In our personel tree we should be able to do it in our acceptable way. or will that cause too much confustion. But I repeat Remi you are correct.

Thanks, Judith!!!

Even in China, if people would write names the way genealogists do, the names would be recognizeable, all though they would be written in another order than we are used to. But Last name would still be Last name, and First name would still be First name.

So, in my opinion it would work worldwide, everyone is born with one First name and one Last name, and that is the name genealogists use as a persons main name, all other names are written in the genealogical programs Alternate names or Also known as (or other options), why should the genealogical program Geni do it differently???

Geni is not just a genealogical program - it is also a Family Social Networking Site. http://www.geni.com/discussions/98590

Do you know Cyrillic for Russian? Or Hebrew for Yiddish? My cousins and I do not (well, some know Hebrew) and in any event, there is no written record we have found, since 1890 or so, for how the original birth name was spelled ... In Russian.

In the interest then of being able to recognize our grandmother I believe we will stay with the English naturalized name for the forseeable future, if that's all right with the geneaologists.

The problem begins to become more nuanced when you go further back in history - not just with other cultures.

Choose a profile from medieval or renaissance royalty at random, and ask yourself if the profile really represents the birth name. I picked

http://www.geni.com/profile/edit_basics/6000000007442241030

Was he really born Henry VIII Tudor, King of England?

No, he was born Prince Henry of England & France. Royalty didn't use surnames. His father was born a Tudor, but he was not. Calling him Henry Tudor, VIII wouldn't be right either - he wasn't the 8th Henry Tudor, even we somehow imagine he was a Tudor. The VIII was never part of his birth name. He got that when he became king.

We call him Henry VIII, King of England because we know him by that name. We insert Tudor, because we like people to have last names, even if they didn't. We leave out France because he didn't really rule France (except Calais). And, we use the VIII instead of II, because we don't really care that his father was also named Henry; we only care that he was 8th Henry in the list of kings of England.

That's taking a lot of liberties. I think some of my fellow curators would argue that we should go back and change all those royal and noble profiles to their real birth names. And, while we're at it, if our earliest record is a baptism record written in Latin maybe we should change those birth names to Latin, and stop translating them into English, French, etc. ;)

My point is that the standard isn't as clear-cut as we sometimes think it is. We sometimes make compromises in our work so that it becomes understandable. Most of us understand perfectly that it is better to call people by the name we know them by if we want other people to undersand. The folks in academia, as well as the folks in Hollywood, know this - they write papers and make movies about Henry VIII, not about Prince Henry of England and France ;)

If you want a high quality documentation site, you go to ancestry.com where they get the source documents for you.. Everyone's tree is kept in its own box and no one messes with your trees. It is very formal.

If you want to be able to merge trees, and invite your relatives to participate - for FREE - you use Geni.

Did I mention the FREE part ?

The quality of the source documents is not always very good on ancestry trees. I see more efforts from geni users to obtain primary sources and cite better quality secondary sources.

Remi , I was being facetious , but in the Insurance business, which I use to be in .If you get an app. for an Asian person,you have to make sure it is set up the way they submit it and you don't ever and I repeat ever use middle Initial for middle name, unless they do. The whole name has to be printed on the app. That's the way they do it and that's the way the policy has to be! They do that with Spanish names too, but for a diferent reason.I don't remember why but I think it's because they sometimes use several last names , so all names have to be printed on the App. I bet they have been doing family history a lot longer then the rest of us. Did anyone see You think You Know Who You Are! when Yo YO ( I forget his last name) the musician was on and they went back to China and they had his entire family history for him. Very interesting how they did it!

Justin, you just hit the nail on the head.

Define nick name! Some people are using Titles as nicknames. To me a nick name is Sally for Sarah or Joe for Joseph and so on. Like me Judy for Judith. Or Spike for God only knows why. I knew a Spike and both a female and a Male Cookie and of a couple of Docs.. We still call Doc , Doc even tho his name is Bruce. There was also a Skippy and a skip. And then there was Snookey Crabtree.( not the one on TV) Who knew his name was Alan! I didn't until we were all grown up and married and had kids. Those are nicknames! MR. Sir, Lord , whatever are titles. Lord of such an area plus another area , Emperor of such and such eye are full titles, sometimes very long. These are all titles. Now the quuen that was called Queen Goosefoot, that was a nickname. Judy

You are correct Judith. I had an uncle Bud. His real name was Loyal, no wonder he got called Bud. :)

Geni has re named the nickname field to "also known as" and put it on the Basics tab .... a good change I think for spelling variations.

I had a fellow flight instructor down in Florida 20 years ago that went by the nickname Dick, a usual nickname for Richard. The problem was that his lastname was Badcock........

Ericia that makes more sense. My Grandmother was Winnette but know as Winnie or Cookie and my mother was Bertha Helen but never used Berta.Almost know one except a few like you guys all me Judith. I am always Judy. One person always calls me Parker because he knew my mother's family so I am just a Parker, even tho I was born a Loubris. crazy hun.The best one was standing in the line of the Christmas Tree Shoppe and the woman in front of me turned around and said Stop and Shop , your the cashier that loves cats and does crafts. Or you make the best pot holders I ever bought. I guess I am the pot holder lady now along with everything else I create. Sometimes I am the genealogy lady My title is, Judith of the house Loubris and Parker, Pot Holder Lady and cat woman! But mostly I am just Judy. Judy

It's a great title!

Seeing that there no longer seems to be anywhere in Home, now called geni, to write a comment or asked a question or for help, I am asking it here even tho it has nothing to do with this discussion. What happens if I get so fed up with not being able to get into things such as Historical profiles or even some of mine to correct thing, Example mary little Dove family they keep saying they were born in present Maine, Well, the last time I looked Barnstable is in Mass and always has been, Maine was for a time part of Mass. not the other way round, Anyway as I started to say what happens to all my info that i orginally put in form me to 12 or more gen.? Do I just quit or do I wipe everything out. that's not connected with others.

Private User

If you manage a profile , you can still edit it.
You can request management of a profile
for request for help go here http://www.geni.com/discussions/80793

Judith, 4 profiles for Mary Bearse are now merged into her MP. None of the fields are locked and you are a manager so you can edit and make corrections.

Eldon , everytime I tried to change place of birth from Maine to Mass. It wouldn't let me.
Marvin thank you for that info

Marvin you should read Damon blog. He infers if you are not a Pro you can't be involved in historical profiles.
No one answered my question on how do we now contact a curator seeing that there does not appear to be a posting area under Geni( the old home)
Also no one said what does one do if one decided to leave geni. If one was to quit does everything they put in disappear or does someone take it over.

Judith any questions Users have for Curators thay post it here.
http://www.geni.com/discussions/80793

Judith, place of birth is Massachusetts

Judith, you can contact the curator through the profile you need help on.
If you leave Geni your tree becomes abandoned after a year when someone reports it.
If you notify Geni before leaving, I think Geni transfers your tree to your closest active family member.