US, New York, Westchester—Indexes to Mortgagors, 1630–1975
Where would I include the suffix Jr when entering a name? Would it fall under the given name, last name, or do I leave it out?
Answers
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You leave it out.
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Generally speaking, unless there is a specific field calling for it, we do not index suffixes. I can literally remember 3 or 4 projects in the past seven years that had the suffix field. We treat the Jr. (and III, etc) just like the first instance. I'm doing Onondaga index to Mortgagees. Let's say there are two records. One is John 1867, Smith, A. Jones, 167, 167 (Year, Mortgagee, Mortgagor, Book #, page #), the next record is the exact same except John Smith, Jr. is the Mortgagee. Without the suffix field, record #2 is an exact duplicate of #1, so no need to index record #2. If the researcher can view the document (it is a privacy thing with some jurisdictions), that person will see Jr. is right below Smith Sr. What they do with that information is up to them. Of course, if there is any difference in the two records, like 1867 and 1869 for the years, you will index both records.
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