A user has changed the surname of my relative citing a technical glitch with the correct spelling
User "St. Smith" changed the surname Nephew to Nephews in profiles L7ZX-PF4 and L7ZX-PFH explaining in the reason field that if the "s" isn't added, "…it causes a system error "This person's last name contains invalid words". This happens because the system recognizes Nephew as a relationship and not a name. I put Nephew in the alternate names, so sources would still come up. Last Changed: September 18, 2024"
I have never experienced this "system error" problem. This surname change cannot be allowed to remain. Please address this issue. Thank you, Peter Sampson.
Answers
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Just go ahead and change the name back to Nephew. It is a perfectly fine last name.
The only place this "system error" (which it is not) shows in on the profile's ordinance page. Only members of the church can see that page so the user must be one. The proper way to handle this difficulty is to still use the correct name instead of making one up then, if seeking to reserve ordinances, to post a request in the Temple section here in community requesting that the reservation be cleared.
Some of the other words that trigger this message are Boy, Girl, Infant, Deceased, Male, Female and other such things that are likely not to be a real name.
I'm pretty sure this programming is not going to change. You could try sending the user a message regarding the correct procedure and a link to this help center article: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/what-words-and-abbreviations-cause-needs-more-information-to-appear
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Have you tried to contact the user who made these comments. I see they were made only last month, so the person should be around to (hopefully) respond. No, there doesn't appear to be any problem with entering the name on Family Tree, but maybe this problem was experienced on another website and it was thought entering without the "s" would cause problems in FT, too.
I know I could never carry out a search on the surname MORE at a local record office - I believe due to its connection to computer programming (as in "more than / less than") - but I never experienced a similar problem elsewhere.
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