Handling changing surnames?

[JAP]

Hi Rambler,

Well, I think that what I do copes with all of that in a formal manner as far as entries in my genealogical program are concerned ...

But as far as the genetic (DNA??) make-up of your family is concerned, I give up ...

I'm sort of glad that my lot were (as far as I know!!) so very boring and unenterprising!  Though not nearly such a fascinating challenge!

JAP

[terrypin]

JAP, Rambler,

Thanks both. Just beginning to appreciate the potential complexity of this issue 

For time being, with more of a twig than a tree to manage, I have no real problem anyway. But I just had an email about the subject from someone with 80,000 names in his database! Frightening to think what a mess that could get into without some consistent system.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

[behindthefrogs]

I discovered far too late that it is important to record the variations and where they occur.  Having made the decision to record all names under one variant I later discovered that various branches were fairly consistent about the variant that they used.  With all the eldest sons including cousins of about the same age called Henry this became a vital help in sorting them out.

David

[1000xlch]

Hi Terrypin

I use FTM10 and because I am going backwards  genealogically speaking of course then whatever the spelling is for the parents is not reflected in the children unless you add new children after the father, when FTM assumes the fathers surname is the correct one.  I have a few variant spellings so this is how I have got round it.

Hope this helps

John Rowley