Adopted children who get a new christian name

[DannyO]

I would be grateful if someone can tell me the best way to accurately record a woman born with the usual family name, but at age 3 her mother dies, and she is adopted by another family, who give her a new first name, and of course, their surname. In Reunion 10.5, if I add/attach the adopted parents to her name, I couldn't see how to reflect her new name. Editing her name to reflect the new full name deletes what her birth name is/was.

One solution that occurs to me was, if Reunion could combine the two names into one (split?) field that reflected this, but that requires another app version. This would also keep the family links?

As there are thousands of people with this example in their tree, I hope someone can offer an elegant solution?

kind regards,
Danny
Australia

[martha]

Re: Adopted children who get a new christian name

I would be grateful if someone can tell me the best way to accurately record a woman born with the usual family name, but at age 3 her mother dies, and she is adopted by another family, who give her a new first name, and of course, their surname. In Reunion 10.5, if I add/attach the adopted parents to her name, I couldn't see how to reflect her new name. Editing her name to reflect the new full name deletes what her birth name is/was.

One solution that occurs to me was, if Reunion could combine the two names into one (split?) field that reflected this, but that requires another app version. This would also keep the family links?

As there are thousands of people with this example in their tree, I hope someone can offer an elegant solution?

kind regards,
Danny
Australia

Shalom, Danny. I have many instances of changed names and I treat them all in the following manner: The original name, if changed, is entered between brackets and the new name is outside the brackets. Take the surname of HIMMELHOCH that one branch changed to HUMMEL. So I would list this as Avraham [HIMMELHOCH] HUMMEL. Ditto for first names: [Avraham] Allan [HIMMELHOCH] HUMMEL. In the person's notes, I explain reasons for the change, if I know them, or just note that the name was changed if I do not know why.

I hope this helps!

Martha

[Galvao]

Re: Adopted children who get a new christian name

I am assuming that solution is also the best way in R10 to register an alternate name, or a nickname of a given person. Is this right?

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Adopted children who get a new christian name

I am assuming that solution is also the best way in R10 to register an alternate name, or a nickname of a given person. Is this right?

There's really no "best" way, you just have to find one that works for you.

One way would be to enter the name in the Alias/AKA (also known as) field.

For nicknames that people actually used, I usually include them in quotation marks in the forename field (Abraham "Abe" Lincoln).

When a surname changes, I list it as "Smith, later Huffington-Smith, later Huffington-Snerdly-Smythe"

When a forename changes, especially when it occurs early in life, I usually give the birth name in the notes and use the name the person is most commonly known by in the fields. Same for stage names when the birth name is relatively unknown.