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dit / ditte names (French)

emilylym
emilylym ✭
February 14, 2022 edited July 11, 2024 in Family Tree

Is there a standard for how to record dit names on FamilySearch? Do we include both surnames in the Last Name field, and if so do we put the term "dit"/"ditte" between them?

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Best Answer

  • MaureenE123
    MaureenE123 ✭✭✭✭✭
    February 14, 2022 Answer ✓

    I am not connected with Family Search.

    See https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-to-enter-names-in-family-tree which says

    "Put nicknames and other variations in the Other Information section

    Add other names a person had in the “Other Information” section. Here are examples:

    • Name variants caused by naming customs, such as French "dit" names"


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Answers

  • emilylym
    emilylym ✭
    February 15, 2022

    Thank you! I searched the help page but that article didn't come up.

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  • Oncle
    Oncle ✭
    May 2, 2023

    Here's the problem. Many French families had several "dit names". If you just add the current families dit name to notes, you automatically create dozens of duplicate individuals. I've been doing this 50 years, the way I do it is: Jean-Baptiste dit Belleville, surname Provencher. Why? Because he used Belleville during his life, but his genealogical name is Provencher. His cousin, Jean-Baptiste dit Villebrun, surname Provencher did likewise.

    If you code both as Provencher, and put the (dit names) which show up on all or many of the records for those people in the notes, in the end, instead of two different people, you'll end up with all of what you see below for just two different people.

    Jean-Baptiste Provencher

    Jean-Baptiste Provencher dit Belleville

    Jean-Baptiste Provencher dit Villebrun

    Jean-Baptiste Villebrun

    Jean-Baptiste Belleville

    Jean-Baptiste Belleville dit Provencher

    Jean-Baptiste Villebrun dit Provencher

    Jean-Baptiste Villebrun Provencher

    Jean-Baptiste Belleville Provencher

    There are, of course, several other dit names for the Provencher surname. Just to make things worse..

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  • Oncle
    Oncle ✭
    May 2, 2023 edited May 2, 2023
    jb.jpg

    This way the names line up, and dupes become obvious. Any other way, produces endless dupes..

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  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    May 2, 2023

    Alternate names (including 'dit' names) belong in Alternate Names, not in Notes. Both the searching and hinting algorithms use all of a profile's names, and they do not treat the name under Vitals any differently. That is, if the name in Vitals is Provencher, with dit Belleville as an alternate, then a search for either Provencher or dit Belleville will match the profile equally.

    The part I don't know -- and don't have a good way of testing -- is whether a search for "Provencher dit Belleville" will match a profile where the two names are only entered separately.

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  • Valerie Penner
    Valerie Penner ✭
    May 2, 2023
    https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/509532#Comment_509532

    The problem with adding the dit name to the "first names" field, such as Jean-Baptiste dit Belleville Provencher, is that it makes it look like you are saying he was also known as Belleville Provencher, with Belleville as an alternate first name. I have seen "dit" used to represent first name nicknames, such as "Scholastique dite Collette" Leblanc, for a woman who was known as both Scholastique Leblanc and Collette Leblanc.

    It makes more sense to put the dit name in the "last names" field than in the "first names" field. But, you may still have people come along and move it to the "alternate names", per FamilySearch policy.

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