When doing naturalization records

kent a.

Should you use the person's original name or their new name on the record?

Melissa S Himes

You should use an Or between the original name and the alias. On all of the examples in the project instructions, they do show to use the OR - except the first example which is How to Index a Petition. It is pretty obvious that James Andrews is also Dimitrios Andriakos. It should have been indexed as

Given Name: Dimitrios or James

Surname: Andriakos or Andrews

The DEC and PET combined record is off too. Ignashak is the surname: Ignashak or Anders. I think the reason they put Ignashak in the given name field is because it goes along with the note: Note: If you cannot determine if a name is a given name or a surname, type it in the Given Names field. The same applies for the example How to Index a Naturalization Name Change with Marie Rosa Flores De Torres. Her maiden name was obviously Flores...so why index the name Flores in the Given Names field and AGAIN as a Surname Flores or DeTorres. Bad examples.

erutherford

For DEC/PET, they are taking from the PET because the PET is the second step to becoming a citizen, therefore Anders is the correct surname.

Melissa S Himes

You should use the Or when variations of names that person used is on the card. They were both "correct surnames" at some point in their life.