Change surname

[Sully2004]

I have a family that some members spell their name as Roan and some spell it Rowan (even from father to son). This makes researching complicated. I have 64 people that I would like to change their surname. Is there a way to do as a group rather going to each person?

[SGilbert]

Re: Change surname

Go to Find in the left column. At bottom, you will see Find and Replace.

[Bob White]

Re: Change surname

IMHO.... For your own convenience, you would be introducing a bunch of inaccuracies into your genealogy database. One should always record the name the ancestor used in their daily lives and use sources, misc. notes, etc. to explain/record differences. Just my two pennies!

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Change surname

xOne should always record the name the ancestor used in their daily lives and use sources, misc. notes, etc. to explain/record differences.

Ancestors often use more than one spelling in daily life, so that's not solution that can be applied everywhere. Our current idea that there's one and only one correct way to spell things is a fairly new one.

[John Hill]

Re: Change surname

IMHO.... For your own convenience, you would be introducing a bunch of inaccuracies into your genealogy database. One should always record the name the ancestor used in their daily lives and use sources, misc. notes, etc. to explain/record differences. Just my two pennies!

I agree. One branch of my family started of as Siminet (almost certainly the vicar’s rendering of what he heard), and evolved into Simonite by the 1830s. Sometime in the 1850s most branches (including mine) became Simmonite. But some retained Simonite and still do.

It was all very fluid around the transition period, with children in a family being baptised with either as time went on.

Similar changes happened in other surnames- Doegood to Dogood or more commonly Doogood for example.

I have tried to record the baptismal or civil registration name whenever possible, noting changes in later censuses or on marriage in the appropriate place. To do a blanket change would introduce errors and also make it very difficult for anyone trying to use the data; they would be searching for the the “wrong” names!

[James Milne]

Re: Change surname

Perhaps all this could be resolved if Reunion had a structured approach to entering different names to the same person? See wish list.

[Donald W. Moore]

Re: Change surname

Use the AKA fact to record name variations. You can add as many AKAs as you need.

[James Milne]

Re: Change surname

Use the AKA fact to record name variations. You can add as many AKAs as you need.

Yes, but it would be nice to have the ability to search in a single list, all names including alternative names, in the family file.
Also there is no structured entry for the AKA fact. Is it forenames then surname, or surname then forenames, and what should be entered to distinguish between the fields, comma, slash etc. to help with gedcom export?
Fingers crossed, Leister will introduce a structured method of adding alternative names with the ability to search all names in a single list.

[Bryce Self]

Re: Change surname

I have a family that some members spell their name as Roan and some spell it Rowan (even from father to son). This makes researching complicated. I have 64 people that I would like to change their surname. Is there a way to do as a group rather going to each person?

My personal solution (obviously not for everybody in all circumstances) is to "standardize" surnames to the most common variant. For individuals, I note the documented variations for their personal record (as others have mentioned). Then, for indexing and search purposes, I create an isolated blank person record with the variant surname, and for First Name ">see (standardized name)". These "person records" appear in the index like this:

SMYTH, > see SMITH

As I say, this works for my purposes. You've already got lots of other good suggestions, too.