dit / ditte names (French)
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?
Best Answer
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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
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Thank you! I searched the help page but that article didn't come up.
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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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This way the names line up, and dupes become obvious. Any other way, produces endless dupes..
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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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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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