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Language used in Family Search

LenoreAkerson1
LenoreAkerson1 ✭
September 15, 2021 edited July 18, 2024 in Family Tree

If one has designated their language as English, is it not correct that they should expect the names of their historical ancestors to be in English? Examples:

William The Conqueror 9H17-VTZ his names changes now and then to something completely different

Louis I LZT6-KB5 Hludowic I. König des Fränkischen Reiches und Römischer Kaiser

Charlelmagne LZ62-TSV Karolus 'Magnus' Rex Francorum Imperator Romanorum

Tagged:
  • Entering Names
  • Different language
0

Best Answer

  • Gordon Collett
    Gordon Collett ✭✭✭✭✭
    September 16, 2021 Answer ✓

    You are correct. At this point in time there is only one name field used in the Vitals section and the name that shows is the last name entered by anyone. The language tag you can set when entering the name only affects the format of the name (last name first, last name last, extra fields for non-Roman, such as Cyrillic, forms of the name) It has no effect on what name shows.

    It would make for an interesting future feature if the language setting for the website interacted with the language tag and it was possible to enter a person's name in different languages and have that language show as appropriate. However, I doubt this would be a high priority for programmers since this feature would be useful for probably less than 0.0001% of the people in Family Tree. The thousands of my wife's rural Norwegian ancestors had only one name in one language and there is absolutely no reason to make up a fake English version of their name.

    Regarding your other point, since Family Tree is a collaborative tree that we all work on together, we do all need to learn how to work together. Looking at you example of William the Conqueror, I see that his name has been edited 32 times since July 1 of this year. I must say this is the silliest waste of time I have ever seen. Does it really matter what name is under Vitals as long it is obvious who he is? Just put all the names he was ever known by in as alternate names and all of you go do some useful work.

    1

Answers

  • CDBurk
    CDBurk ✭✭✭✭
    September 15, 2021

    HI @LenoreAkerson1, you have asked if you should see only Roman characters for names in Family Tree if you have designated your overall language for FamilySearch as English.

    Actually, that will not always be the case. If you go to the Edit link for the name of an ancestor who is in Family Tree, you will see that you can select a language which you would like for the name to show. The two following knowledge articles might be helpful to explain how this is done.

    https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-enter-a-name-from-a-different-language-into-family-tree
    https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-enter-names-in-family-tree-that-are-a-different-language

    Any contributor can change how the name displays, and this might explain why you see changes for the same ID numbers over time. Keep in mind that when a name change occurs, it will appear in All Changes in the Latest Changes for the record. Distant ancestors usually have names or titles changed frequently because they have so many descendants. To review how to use the Latest Changes, we have provided an additional knowledge article.

    https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-see-what-changes-have-been-made-about-a-person-in-family-tree

    We appreciate your question and hope you will find the information we have provided helpful. Since this concern is really related to the records you are seeing for your ancestors who are part of Family Tree, we will be moving this discussion to the Family Tree Category in the Community. This will allow others who may have a similar question to find the discussion. Please don't be alarmed when this shows as Closed in the FamilySearch Community category after the move. It will remain open and active in the Family Tree category so others who are working in Family Tree can make additional comments.

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  • LenoreAkerson1
    LenoreAkerson1 ✭
    September 15, 2021

    This did not answer the problem.

    Why should FS allow a version of a name for an historical person be unreadable when they have selected English for the language. If a person wants to see the name in German or Russian, then they can select that language; however, if the language showing is English, then the name should be shown in the manner most English speaking people know that person.

    I have chosen English - even under Edit for a given name - however, for King Louis I LZT6-KB5, a contributor continues to put in the name as

    Hludowic I. König des Fränkischen Reiches und Römischer Kaiser

    The same is being done for Charlemagne and William The Conqueror, as well as others.

    I don't want to change the name every other day. I don't want to fight with another contributor. But the World knows them by their English names. So if the English language has been selected, then the name should appear in English - however, that is not always the case.

    Lenore Akerson

    0
  • dontiknowyou
    dontiknowyou ✭✭✭✭✭
    September 16, 2021

    For what it is worth, here are the titles of just a few of over 140 different language Wikipedia articles about Charlemagne:

    Karl der Große

    Carlomagno

    Charlemagne

    Carlo Magno

    카롤루스 1세 마그누스

    Карл Великий

    Carolus Đại đế 

    查理曼

    קארל דער גרויסער

    Karlos I.a Handia

    Carlemany

    Böyük Karl

    Siarlymaen

    Carulu Magnu

    Karel de Grote

    Karolus la Granda

    Carlos Magno

    Charles I (gazik ke Franca)


    So, on Family Tree, one conventional practice is to give the person's name as it appears in the majority of historical records attached to the profile. Another is to give the person's name as the person rendered it themself.

    1
  • dontiknowyou
    dontiknowyou ✭✭✭✭✭
    September 16, 2021 edited September 16, 2021

    For possible future language localization, it would be necessary to correctly assign the language of each Alternate Names field, as appropriate. For example, on the name Karl der Große set the language to German.

    Screen Shot 2021-09-16 at 8.01.52 AM.png


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  • CDBurk
    CDBurk ✭✭✭✭
    September 16, 2021 edited September 16, 2021

    @dontiknowyou, thank you so much for the screen shot which verifies that we can select a specific language other than English as we enter names into Family Tree. You example of option for a person's name were also very helpful.

    While it may be true that those in English-speaking countries know famous monarchs in history by English versions of their name, FamilySearch is available in many countries of the world that do not speak or understand English, therefore, we are happy to provide a way to allow a name to appear in a format that might be more correct for the country which there were from, or a language that is more familiar to them.

    1
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