Ancestor completely changed his name
I have an ancestor who completely changed his name upon arrival in the U.S. Accordingly, here on Family Search he is found under both his original (birth) name and under the name he started using once he came to the U.S. Both names have a different Family Search ID number. Is there any way to merge the information so this individual only has 1 ID number? On the record page for each name I have already added the other name as an "Alternate Name."
Answers
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Yes, if they are definitely the same, single, person, the Merge option is how you combine the two profiles into a single one.
There is an Improved Merge option, currently in testing, with a dedicated group for questions and feedback.
The Help Article for Merging:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-merge-duplicates-in-family-tree-by-id0 -
I was adopted by my stepfather whose parents were immigrants from Romania. I did their tree to share with my sisters. Anyway, I found that some of them changed their names upon arrival or that their names were spelled wrong. The misspellings were because there was no consistent ways of spelling certain words or names back then. A lot of people were near illiterate, because they were made to stay home from school and help with chores around the house. So a lot of people were never to go back to school after a certain age, so many could barely write let alone spell correctly.
Also, when immigrating from other countries some countries have symbols or letters, if you will, that were not even an actual letter but a sound (if that makes any sense.). Making it difficult to get the correct spelling of the name, so they freelanced it. Names like Martin, Marten, Same last name spelled differently because one is Irish, and the other is English. My dad's family name is Schieb, that is from Romania, but there is Schiebel, and there is Scheib. One being German and the other being Jewish. Same last names, different dialects and pronunciations from different parts of the World.
If you actually put some hard work into your genealogy, you can find out some real interesting facts about different cultures, as well as find some amazing facts about your family. I come from a long line of military. Every generation of my mother's side of the family have fought in every single war the United States had involvement in. I also had family that fought on opposing sides during the Civil War. Some even within the same "branch" of the family. I found that Heart and lung issues have ran rapid in my family as well as mental illness. As a person who struggled to fit in, it helped me to understand some of the things I was going through in my life. I have been working on my family tree since 2012 and have learned so much on my journey. It has been pretty rewarding really. So try not to get frustrated with the information. Take your time and actually go to the resource itself, compare the information and if you can correct any misinformation do so. It helps tremendously for those who are just starting out on this journey…Good luck!
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