patronymic names

miekehawner1

I am researching my relatives in Friesland, the Netherlands, and many had patronymic names.

Where do you enter a patronymic name? Under the first name or the last name?

Thank you, Mieke

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Which part of this enormous site of many parts? Are you searching for a name in records, adding a name to the tree, or something else entirely?

miekehawner1

Just a very simple question, regarding adding patronymic names.

I need to know what is the correct way to enter the patronymic names.

Do I enter a patronymic name in the last name column, or should it be entered in the first name column?

Áine Ní Donnghaile

But WHERE are you entering the names? That is the essential question. Are you creating a profile in the tree or are you trying to find records or are you trying to find profiles that may already exist in the tree?

SerraNola

@mhawner1 To enter the name in FamilyTree, use the patronymic name as the surname. For example, Hans Peter Peterson, son of Peter Jensen is entered:

You might want to do as this example and provide an explanation when or if the person changes from using the patronymic name.

miekehawner1

Thank you SerraNola for your good advice about giving an explanation.

In the passed, have always entered the patronymic name under the last name column.

My problem is that another person on familysearch is constantly changing what I enter, and moving the name as part of the first name.

SerraNola

@mhawner1 If the person gives no reason for changing it you might want to send a private message. Sometimes people want to try to get all the name variations into one name. The important thing is to make it easy for others to identify the person. Always list alternate names the person used in his lifetime and sometimes you may want to add a note for why the names are different. That way researchers know how to put the name in the search box as they are looking for various records, in various time periods, and in various places.

Gordon Collett

@mhawner1

This is an area that has many opinions, various "standards" declared by various self-designated authorities, and not much actually supported by anything.

I work with my wife's Norwegian relatives and so can't say much about what to do with your relatives but the only printed guidelines and regulations I have found are at Geni: https://www.geni.com/projects/Introduksjon-til-Geni-norsk/3288. To quote the pertinent passage in these instructions:

Føring av Navn

Vi anvender navnekonvensjonene vanlig innen slektsgransking og på Geni.

Fornavnsfelt: alle fornavn ved dåp

Mellomnavnsfelt: patronymikon/farsnavn (Olsdotter, Børresson), dette patronymet føres kun der personen bruker et slektsnavn eller gårdsnavn som etternavn.

Etternavnsfelt: Her føres etternavn (fra 1923), slektsnavn eller gårdsnavn. Patronym som er blitt faste (endres ikke mellom generasjonene) skrives som etternavn i Etternavnsfeltet. Patronym som ikke er faste, men der personen ikke har et fast slektsnavn eller gårdsnavn, skal dette patronymet skrives i Etternavnsfeltet og ikke i Mellomnavn-/Patronymfeltet.

My translation:

Recording of Names

We use the name conventions that are customary within genealogy and on Geni.

First Name field: all first names given at christening.

Middle Name field: patronymic/father's name (Olsdotter, Børresson), this patronymic is entered only when the person used a family name or farm name as a last name.

Last Name field: here is entered the last name (after 1923), family name, or farm name. Patronymics that have been fixed (that is, do not change between generations) are recorded as last names in the Last Name Field. Patronymics which are not fixed, but where the person did not have a set family name or farm name are to be written in the Last Name field and not in the middle name/patronymic field.

This is the standard I personally like and use.

FamilySearch chose to combine the First Name and Middle Name fields so in practice, these guidelines/standards from Geni which Geni states are the customary usage of genealogists look like this in Family Tree for Norwegians:

Case 1: Jon, the son of Anders - the family did not have a surname, just the patronymic:

Case 2: Jon, the son of Anders - the family used the fixed patronymic surname of Hansen:

or

Case 3: Jon, the son of Anders - the family owned the farm Vikanes and were in a part of the country were farm names were considered true surnames:

Case 4: Jon, the son of Anders - the family belonged to the upper class and had been using the family name of Hagerup for generations:

Do note that when just looking at a profile page you cannot tell if the patronymic is in the first name or last name field, so from that standpoint, it really does not matter all that much where it is.

However, a few years ago I tested out various configurations of the patronymic and surname and found that the Family Tree Find routine and the general FamilySearch Search routine give the best results when searching using the surname if the patronymic is in the middle name field and the surname stands alone in the last name field.

Since when processing profiles for hints, possible duplicates, and searches FamilyTree uses both the Vitals name and all the Alternate Names and since many indexed records do not include the person's last name/surname but just a patronymic, if I have a person whose name fits cases 2 through 4, I always include as an Alternate Name the case 1 form of his or her name which drops the surname and has the patronymic in the last name field like this:

Then the routines nicely bring up all the Jon Anderssons and all the Jon Hagerups.

It sounds like your relative is also following what Geni says is the customary way to handle patronymics.

miekehawner1

Gordon,

Thank you very much for your excellent explanation, this was very helpful!

Mieke