If sir name is listed first, should this be considered the given name?

Rayleen H Barnes

While in the process of Reviewing Sierra Leone—Birth and Death Registrations, 1858–2016 [Part C][M367-9ZR], I quite often come across the last name of the mother and child to be to be listed as the first name of the father. As in the case of :

Should the fathers name of Amara Mangu be listed as first and last or should the given name be Mangu and the Surname be Amara as the child and mother are listed?

LarryClark43

The suggestion from annewandering is a safe approach.

From the General guidelines:

• If you cannot determine whether a name is a given name or a surname, type it in the Given Names field.

KLaRRees

Do you have a batch code that you can share with us - so that we can look at the Project instructions and the field help for more guidance? You can find that code by the last 7 digits after the title of the project. Usually it starts with the Letter M.

Melissa S Himes

The batch code is in the original post. [M367-9ZR] I looked at this earlier today, but, don't know enough about these names to help.

Susan Ann Mullen

In another post a person familiar with naming customs in Sierra Leone said that the Given name of the father was the surname of the child.

Found the post. Take it for what it is worth. https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/115769/last-names-on-sierra-leone-indexing#latest

"LarryClark43 ✭✭✭

February 6 IPv6 Answer ✓

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Hi,

I lived in Papua New Guinea for many years. It is the custom there to use the father's first name for the wife and children's last name. This does make family research a bit of a nightmare!!!"

LarryClark43

Hi,

I have been online studying to see what I could find. I found that Amara is a common family name in Sierra Leone. Also found listings for Mangu as a surname. The Mende ethnic group is one of the larger groups in the country and I tried to find any information about their traditional naming procedures but I didn't actually find anything that was helpful.

It appears to me from this example and from the batches that I have worked on that there could be groups in Sierra Leone using the same naming procedure as what I was familiar with in Papua New Guinea. I did not find any positive proof today. Sorry for the not so helpful answer.

I have also noted from batches that I have completed, that some families in Sierra Leone use one family name for all members of the family.