Changed Name Discovered After Profile Created

RexPayne1

I discovered that my grandfather, who I never met, actually was born under a different name than the one he died with. But I didn't discover this until I created a profile for him on my family tree under his death name and attached a source record to it. Is there a way to combine both profiles into one, or erase the one I created and add the one I discovered?

Thanks,

Rex

Western Detective

Hello @RexPayne1

You can change the name that you entered for your grandfather.

Go to the profile you set up for him. In the Vitals section click the Edit next to the name field. After you change the name here, the name up displayed up the top will also change.

This knowledge article explains how to make changes - https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-change-vital-information-in-family-tree

You can add the nickname or other name he was known as to his profile as an "alternate name".

This knowledge article explains how to add an alternate name -

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-add-nicknames-to-family-tree

This knowledge article may also be useful to you -

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-enter-my-ancestors-name-if-it-changed

You may want to enter your grandfather's birth name as his name, and add the other name as an alternate name OR you may want to use the name he was most known as as the name and then add his birth name as an alternate name.

FamilySearch will use both the name and the alternate name for search results and when finding record hints.

I hope you find this useful.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

As the previous commenter has noted, you can change the name on a profile, and/or add an alternate name, but it sounds like that's not quite your question: you imply that along with the discovery of the different birth name, you also found a profile already created using that other name. If so, the tool you need is "merge by ID". You'll need to make a choice about which profile you'll keep, and which one you'll archive. During the merge, you can selectively move conclusions over from one profile to the other, so you can keep all the "good parts".

Western Detective

Good pick up @Julia Szent-Györgyi . Thanks.