Changing Spelling of Surname

[Gerald Wright]

I'm working on the McCutchan, McCutchan and McCutcheon families of the US, one of my families was entered in Reunion as McCutchen now I find that they spelled the name McCutcheon. I have about four generations and several children, is there a way to globally change their surnames?

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Changing Spelling of Surname

one of my families was entered in Reunion as McCutchen now I find that they spelled the name McCutcheon. ... is there a way to globally change their surnames?

1. mark all the people whose surname you want to change (you could do this by marking all descendants of the couple in question. It won't matter if you mark people with other surnames (spouses of descendants) as long as you don't mark a McCutchen you don't want changed.)
2. click "FIND" in the NavBar on the left.
3. click "Find and Replace..."
4. fill in: Replace all occurances of "McCutchen" with "McCutcheon"
Who: "Marked people"
Where: "Last names"
How: Whole words only
5. click the "Replace..." button

[Bob White]

Re: Changing Spelling of Surname

I'm working on the McCutchan, McCutchan and McCutcheon families of the US, one of my families was entered in Reunion as McCutchen now I find that they spelled the name McCutcheon. I have about four generations and several children, is there a way to globally change their surnames?

Do you really want to make a global change? Ancestors should be recorded by the last name that they were born with. The chances are quite good that those three spellings and more were actually used in real life.

The only change should be if it is discovered that they changed/went by a different last name later in life. If that happens, there are several opinions about how to record. There have been discussions on how to record such bumps in the road here in these forums from time to time if you want more input on that issue.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Changing Spelling of Surname

Do you really want to make a global change? Ancestors should be recorded by the last name that they were born with. The chances are quite good that those three spellings and more were actually used in real life.

The only change should be if it is discovered that they changed/went by a different last name later in life. If that happens, there are several opinions about how to record. There have been discussions on how to record such bumps in the road here in these forums from time to time if you want more input on that issue.

You're right that "global" isn't the right word, but he describes what he wants to do, which is to change the surname of only one of the families in his file. Once he's done, he'll still have all three spellings, corresponding to the last names the families actually used. That's why I included the step of marking the individuals he wants to change in my instructions.