Entering Mexican apellidos (surnames)

ArizonaIslander

Hi all, what is the standard method of entering traditional Mexican surnames into the tree? People took their father's first surname AND their mother's first surname. For example, Juan Jose Alvarez Duarte and Maria Teresa Bustamante Castillo have a daughter. Her name is Isabel Rosa Alvarez Bustamante. Do both apellidos go in the surname field? What is the standard way of entering Mexican names? Thank you.

Alan E. Brown

Yes, you put both apellidos in the last names field. So for your example, you would put Isabel Rosa in the first names field, and Alvarez Bustamante in the last names field.

MDNash79

@Alan E. Brown

I almost agree with you, except that below the "last name" box appears in italics the notation If female, use maiden name.

So, while there's no harm in including both paternal and maternal surnames in the last name box (and most Spanish-language family history researchers include both) the surnames are already implied in the record of the parents of the principal person.

But this begs the question, why is the notation to use the maiden name for females included?

Adrian Bruce1

@MDNash79 and @Alan E. Brown - I can only approach this from the point of limited knowledge and logic, not experience, but I would agree with Alan that "… Alvarez Bustamante [should go] in the last names field …".

And to answer your question about " … why is the notation to use the maiden name for females included?", I would go along with your apparent(?) suspicion that the maiden name instruction should not appear for names formatted Spanish style. So far as I understand it, under the Spanish conventions, women do not change their surnames on marriage and therefore there is surely no such thing as a maiden name in those circumstances.

As for their name being implied by those of their parents… Well, possibly, but as with most implications there are, I believe, exceptions.