Show 'Alias' name in Source Linker

FrankSchnell

It would help a lot showing for females the alias name from the record in the Source Linker. For a reason I do not understand the maiden name is indexed as an alias name instead of the surname. Instead, the married name is stored in the surname field.

This leads to many (!) incorrect assignments. Especially when no married name is indexed/provided and the available maiden name is hidden in the alias. The incorrect assignments can be prevented by simply showing the alias as well in the Source Linker, e.g. in square brackets such as in "<given names> <surname> [<alias>]" (if the alias field is not empty).

I know it is possible to do a mouse click to see the details of the record, but it means extra and useless effort.

Thanks

Frank

ScottSeegmiller

@FrankSchnell I would like to understand a little more about where the problem lies:

• Is the problem in Source Linker putting the maiden name and the married name in the same Last Name field?
• Is the problem with the person page where there is not a separate field for married name?
• When you say alias name, what field in family search are you referring to?

Julia Szent-Györgyi

I vaguely remember something about some German records being indexed using the label "alias name" (or something like it) for the field containing women's maiden names. Given Source Linker's continuing literal-mindedness, it of course wouldn't know what to do with such a field. Is that what you're talking about, @FrankSchnell? If so, could you perhaps provide links and/or screenshots, illustrating the problem?

FrankSchnell

Thanks @ScottSeegmiller and @Julia Szent-Györgyi,

here is an example of which field I mean. [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPF8-ZR67]

The name is indexed as "Anna Maria Seim" with an Alias of "Göbel". In fact, however, her maiden name is Göbel. In many cases the name does not even mention the married name, just the first name. As the source linker does not show the Alias (or maiden name) very, very often incorrect record assignments are being done solely based on the first name matches.

As the maiden name is incorrectly indexed as alias and the married name as given name it would help to see in the source linker that alias name (if there is one). It would prevent wrong attachments in many cases.

Yes, it is possible to click one more time and view the record whether there is an alias ….. but many don't seem to do.

Thanks

Frank

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Yes, that matches my vague recollection. The record says "Anna Maria, geboren Göbel", with "Seim Anna Maria" in the margin, which was indexed as:

Name	Anna Maria Seim
Alias	Göbel
Age	60
Birth Year (Estimated)	1789
Father's Name	Seim
Father's Sex	Male
Spouse's Name	Johann Caspar Seim
Event Type	Burial
Event Date	7 May 1849
Event Place	Ermenrod, Ermenrod, Ermenrod, Alsfeld, Hessen, Deutschland
Page Number	4;5
Affiliate Name	Evangelisches Zentralarchiv in Berlin
Note	Heiraten u. Tote 1808-1875

When one uses Source Linker on this index entry, it shows her name on the left-hand (index) side as just Anna Maria Seim, while on the right-hand (tree) side, it only shows as Anna Maria Göbelin. (Aside: it really should just be Göbel; the -in suffix is customarily omitted in genealogy.)

As far as I know, there is currently no way to get Source Linker to show you more fields: you can't find out from it that there's a maiden/alias name in the index, and you can't see whether there are any alternate names on the profile. The best you can do is to flip back and forth between separate tabs, or open side-by-side browser instances (possibly on multiple screens), in order to compare the profile and index detail pages. If you're working on a family with many same- or similar-named people, it can get Highly Confusing, and the name mismatch makes it likely that the mother's death will get attached to a daughter instead.

(No doubt, misindexings like the "Father's Name" field here make errors even more likely. Most users of FamilySearch can't make heads or tails of That Dratted Handwriting, and thus can't tell that the death record makes no mention of Anna Maria's parentage anywhere. Most of them probably can't find Göbel in the entry, and/or don't recognize that "grbownr"-looking thing as geboren.)