RootsChat.Com
Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: Karen Lorraine on Monday 05 September 16 07:39 BST (UK)
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Hi
I have been doing my family tree using the web site Find My Past.
I was wondering when others add names to their tree do you keep the womans maiden name.
For example
Peter Bunch married Doreen Morgan - I have left Doreen with her maiden name rather than changing it to Bunch (where as Find My Past automatically changes it to Bunch)
I like to see the maiden names - was wondering what others do regarding this?
Thank you
Karen
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I don't use that particular website for my tree but I do prefer having maiden names clearly visible.
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I use Ancestry (on internet) and RootsMagic (at home).
I always use maiden names, and never, ever change a surname!
How would you enter a woman who has had 3 husbands? So 4 surnames in total? :-\
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I use My Heritage and Ancestry (internet) My Heritage Family Tree Builder and Roots Magic (home)
I always keep the maiden names.
My maternal granny is one such much married lady, for me solved the problem by keeping her maiden name and my mother's, just for consistency ;)
Made a note of her other surnames but no children from those marriages so they are just for info sake.
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I use Ancestry and enter the ladies by their maiden names.
No matter how many times they marry I never change their name - just the husband - nor does Ancestry change it for me.
Didn't know that was what Find My Past does, not very satisfactory really. Have you contacted them to query this?
Dorrie
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From another forum, a similar discussion (on what to do when the maiden name is not (yet) known) started off with
As is often the case, there is more than one school of thought on this.
but soon degenerated to
to use the married name when the maiden name is known is sheer ignorance.
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I always keep the maiden name in my tree.
On a similar note, what name do you record in your tree if the spelling changes over time, or if they reverse their first name and middle name, for example?
I usually record the version they most frequently use in adulthood, e.g. the name they sign on their marriage certificate (if they are literate) or on their children's birth certificates.
Some earlier ancestors have three different spellings on their baptism, marriage and burial records!
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So that I can have a hard-and-fast rule, I use the name on their baptism or birth certificate with others entered as an a.k.a.
It does make the tree look a bit messy at times though
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I also use the name on their baptism, if I can find one, or the most commonly used spelling if not and notes made as to the other versions.
I think the different spellings have come from the people who fill out the certificates and then my lot have just signed them with their names. Fortunately not glaring differences just a letter here or there is not the same.
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I always use Maiden names when I know them, otherwise, as with my 2 Irish 4x great grandparents, one is listed as Sarah Annie Unknown - and the other just Unknown, as I don't know her Christian name/s either.
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I have left Doreen with her maiden name rather than changing it to Bunch (where as Find My Past automatically changes it to Bunch)
FindMyPast has not changed womens maiden names to their married names on my tree :-\
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Pure speculation - I wonder if ftp overwrote an initial entry when adding a census or death
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Thank you everyone!
With find my past - if you click on the hints for a person and then agree that they hint they have offered is correct you then click 'yes, next step' - then 'update' it automatically changed the maiden name to the husbands surname. I am very new to this and it took me a while to realise you can update manually just those bits you wanted updating but just wondered what other did and thought about it :)
I just didn't want to lose the maiden names off of all my female relatives
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I always use maiden names, otherwise it looks very odd e.g. Jane Smith daughter of John Brown! Surely you need a maiden name to be able to follow the family backwards?
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I always add the maiden names. ......And at Ancestry, most information I have tended to add manually, as opposed to automatically adding, because the leaf information is not always accurate by way of spelling mistakes, wrong dates and place names.
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The convention would generally be to use the person's name at birth (not the maiden name).
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??? Surely a women's name at birth is their maiden name?
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??? Surely a women's name at birth is their maiden name?
That's what I always thought, although I see one definition is it is the name that she is known by before her marriage. In most cases that would be the same as her name at birth.
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I suppose that take into account those women who may have been adopted and so her birth name would change....
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??? Surely a women's name at birth is their maiden name?
That's what I always thought, although I see one definition is it is the name that she is known by before her marriage. In most cases that would be the same as her name at birth.
A maiden name is "the name in which a woman first contracted a marriage " ..... so in most cases it will be the same as her birth name, but not always.
That is the definition used by GRO for all registration purposes.
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Thanks Antony - you learn something new everyday on RootsChat.
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Yes I always use the birth name no matter how many times people marry. I've noticed in some people's trees they have put married names but may be they've added something and not realised the surname has changed due to the record added and they have n't realised. Although have to be wary as they may be cousins who have married or surname the same by chance. If you go down the DNA route as well, it may cause you difficulties if you have n't got correct surnames on!
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If I don't (yet?!) know the maiden name of a female, I enter them with the married surname in brackets - so, Sue (Smith).
Those with unknown names are much easier to spot!
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If I don't (yet?!) know the maiden name of a female, I enter them with the married surname in brackets - so, Sue (Smith).
Those with unknown names are much easier to spot!
That is what I do too ;D
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If I don't (yet?!) know the maiden name of a female, I enter them with the married surname in brackets - so, Sue (Smith).
Those with unknown names are much easier to spot!
That is what I do too ;D
Me too! it reminds me I still have to look for their marriage, and when you list everyone in your tree alphabetically all the bracketed surname appear together so they're easy to find.
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Great minds think alike! ;D ;D