How to tell if a name is a surname or given name?

zacharyboydcampbell1

How to tell if a name is a surname or given name? I got to number 7 in a bacth for birth records and the name for the father is just Edwin. Perhaps the last name is mentioned. I know last names are usually how people are identified. And it has been that way for a while. That is why I am asking. (Just trying to make sure I do all this indexing, right).

https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/c6f0cd07-2a0e-4ea0-92b9-8c71acc5892e

M3QD-4M7

Melissa S Himes

Hi Zachary. You are allowed to look at the last column and index the complete names for these people.

General Indexing Guidelines under Indexing Names:

• Names may have been written in more than 1 place in a document. Type the most complete version of the name in the indexing field.

So, on Entry 1 the Given Name is Geo P. and the surname is Arey. On 3, the man's name is Wm S Baker. and so forth.

We also know from the General Indexing Guidelines that -

• If you cannot determine whether a name is a given name or a surname, type it in the Given Names field.

So, on the case of Entry 7, we would type Edwin in the Given Name field. However, the surname field is blank in this case because the Mother was the one who provided the information. Because the field help tells us that we cannot assume a surname from others mentioned in the document, we can't use Bilbo as the surname for Edwin. However, it should have been entered as the Mother's Surname since the most complete version of her name is Bilbo, Susan. So, you should mark the Father's Surname <blank> and add Bilbo to the Mother's Surname.

The father on 22 is Jno M., 24 is Robt.

Most of these mothers have middle initials, none of them have a surname to index. So, the indexer was correct to include the initials with the given name and mark the Surname blank, except in the case of Susan Bilbo on Entry 7. They should have put a period after them though since we were asked to include punctuation on this project. (You can click that red arrow and put them back to the original and add the period after the initials.)

The indexer should not have indexed the Birth County or the Father's Residence State on these. It is in the header which we are told not to use in this project. You can globally delete those by making the first entry blank, click back on the field, and then click the copy text forward tool (6th from the right) to render them all <blank>.

On entry 4, the birth city is Charles Town which is located in West Virginia, very near the Virginia border.

I'll be happy to look at this again if you want to private message or tag me before you submit the batch.

KLaRSaint

When you look at the field help for given names and surnames there should be a statement that says "The surname may be written either before or after the given names. Be sure to type the names in the correct fields in the data entry area. If you cannot determine if a name is a given name or a surname, type it in the Given Names field." In other words, if you are not sure you can type it in the given names fields. Thank you for indexing these amazing records!

cesarnarcisotinocoperez1

Hola Zachary espero esto le pueda ayudar.

No confundir la fecha de nacimiento con la fecha de registro, el cual algunas veces se incluye en los registros de nacimientos

Si no hay un año registrado o solo hay dos dígitos del mismo, usted podría determinar el año obteniéndolo de la información registrada en otra imagen. Si usted todavía no pudiera determinar los cuatro dígitos del año completo, escríbalo como se encuentra en el registro.

Si el año no fue registrado o fue escrito como una variación de la palabra "desconocido" presione Ctrl+B para dejar este campo en blanco.

Ingresar información—Paso 2 de 8Indexe la información de la imagen según se solicite en cada campo. Haz clic en el  para obtener ayuda en este campo.

• Escriba los nombres de pila del hijo.

 Escriba lo que vea—Paso 3 de 8

La regla más básica de indexación es “ingrese lo que vea”.

• Ingrese ambos apellidos. Si tiene alguna duda, haga clic en Más en la ayuda para el campo de arriba. Para continuar, presione la tecla Tab para continuar.

El apellido puede estar escrito antes o después del nombre propio. Asegúrese de ingresar los apellidos en los campos correspondientes de la pantalla de indexación. Si no puede determinar si el nombre es un apellido o un nombre propio, indéxelo en el campo del nombre propio

 

 

zacharyboydcampbell1

comments are helpful. thanks.

Melissa S Himes

You are most welcome, Zachary. I posted another comment early this morning, but, it appears to have been deleted. I'm not really too sure why it was deleted and hope that a moderator will message me with a reason after I spent 1/2 hour composing it! I hate to waste time if something is going to be deleted.

To sum up my morning post: You are correct to index the birth year on these. The 3rd example shows that the birth year is indexed from the information at the top of the register "in the year ending 187__" The only things not indexed from the header are the places.

zacharyboydcampbell1

thanks