Adding Alternate Names from the Current Name

LegacyUser

cassandravanhout said: When adding records or merging people I spend a lot of time going back to the main profile to add alternate spellings of a name I come across. It might be nice if we had the option to add the individual's current name as an alternate name while adding records or during merges. I would save a lot of time if it were as easy as sliding the info over.

LegacyUser

Jordi Kloosterboer said: Eh, its only one name to add to the alt name section, and having the option to add the current name as an alt name can make the alt name section grow too big of same names with different spellings (its not an alt spellings directory) or just the same name added several times.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: I seldom add different spellings as alternate names. FS is set up to do some searching using alternate spellings anyway (though researchers in non-English languages may "harrumph" at reading that).

My view is that if it's a minor spelling variation, it might never come up again, in which case why record it? You've found the minor variant source-index record and attached it. There might not be another with that spelling.

Bigger variants, however, I will record as Alternates - "Marleigh" for "Marley", "Healow" for "Heler", "Lofkin" for "Lovekin", etc,.

The art, of course, is knowing when to do which!

LegacyUser

Paul said: Once again, my ancestor John Harrod provides a good example here. I would show his Alternate names as John Harwood and John Herod, as anyone else viewing the record might not have thought of these as alternatives.

However, I would definitely always record his baptism name of John Wall as an Alternate (he was illegitimate and known throughout his life as Harrod, or variants), as searching for a John Wall OR John Harrod using the FIND function produces the same record.

Other than that, I agree with Adrian about it not being too important to add very similar names (e.g. Stacy or Stacey) as alternates, as the system should find these variants in any case. Remember, the Alternate names entered in Family Tree are not recognised in a search at https://www.familysearch.org/search/. They are only of any practical use within the Family Tree program.

LegacyUser

Juli said: "It's not an alternate spellings directory": exactly!

At least 90% of the alternate names I've encountered on FamilySearch's Family Tree have been completely superfluous, preserving misreadings, spelling variations, abbreviations, and misinterpretations rather than actual other names that the person was known by.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Given the capabilities of the FS search software (at least in English), I would agree with you. However, yet again we have to ask - has anyone in the user community been told this?

NB there are spelling variations that I would enter, examples listed below, which it isn't reasonable to expect the software to cover.