Birth Name
A record I am looking at for baptisms states "Thomas s of Isaac Parker of Low ground". I understand that I should not assume that Thomas's last name is Parker. Is that correct? I think I should just put his name as Thomas and do not put a surname.
Answers
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That is correct. Just put blank for the surname in this instance.
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Yes, totally correct, but (for the researcher) totally unhelpful!
Who would think that if on one page "Thomas s of Isaac Parker" was the format (used by the clerk) and on the next "William Parker s of Isaac" was written, the two entries have to be indexed in a totally different manner!
So, once these indexed records go online, I have to "remember" to make two searches for any of Isaac Parker's children - one based on PARKER being the child's last name and one using PARKER as the father's last name.
If this is the practice elsewhere (FMP, Ancestry, etc.) I certainly have not been caught out by it. Surely, indexing is supposed to act as a finding aid, instead of the exercise being a part of a project where the instructions are so pedantic they make later searches more complicated than need be?
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