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Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2003-01 > 1041548351


From: "Gerry Bourguignon" <>
Subject: Re: [Q-R] Need advice on spelling surnames
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 17:59:40 -0500
References: <00fb01c2b1d8$d41e4100$bc6bfea9@q6k8m6>


In a message dated Wed, Jan 01, 2003 4:00 PM,
writes:

<< Needless to say, when I try to remove duplicates in my files, I find that
three
years ago when I started, I was not consistant, so I have some work to do.
I know this is a familiar problem to all of you, but I am asking - What do
YOU
do in your own database? Is there a professional standard for this
situation,
as in guidelines or rules? >>

I started just over a year ago, and I too find that my consistency (and
methodology) have varied even in that relatively short period of time.
Personally, I have come to accept that this is something for which there are
no easy answers, and that this is an area that will need ongoing
consideration (and re-consideration).

I may have started off entering the names just the way I found them. If I
did, that didn't last very long at all. For example, I believe that an
ancestor on my mother's side, JOHN Dudley, is listed as YCRIN Dudley, in a
repertoire of United and Methodist marriages. That's probably the worst
interpretation of a given name that I've come across in my own research.
Turning to surnames, a few of my Hollington ancestors have been listed as
Harrington in some of the records. Another ancestor was orphaned at a young
age and went to live with a KENNEDY family. That family is listed as CANADA
on at least one of the census records.

On my father's side (which is all French) there are at least as many
abominations of surnames as there are on my mother's side (which is only 1/8
French). I've seen several "interesting" misspellings of my own surname --
the only saving grace being that, well, at least they all started with the
letter "B".

Several months ago I came up with a first version of my own convention for
entering surnames in my genealogy program. For example, if a name was
listed as "Adolphe Pérriard", and I was certain the individual was a
name-carrying descendant of Nicolas Périllard dit Bourguignon, I would enter
the surname as "Adolphe Périllard (Pérriard)". That is, I would enter the
standard name first, followed by the misspelling or variation that I had
encountered in the source record (incidentally, I use the PRDH version of
the standard name). I was satisfied with that convention; however, I didn't
like it much when I came across a name like "Vitaline Périard dit
Bourdignon", for example, because "Vitaline Périllard (Périard) dit
Bourguignon (Bourdignon)" gets rather long and awkward looking. So,
although this did not solve that particular 'problem', I did come up with
another way of listing the names in my indexes.

I came up with a process whereby I could generate all my HTML files (to go
online) using the above convention, but then go through a second step to
"clean up" the indexes. This appears to be similar to how the PRDH database
is set up. For example, in the PRDH, when you enter your search criteria
and it returns a list of all the baptisms for "Pierre GIBEAU", for example,
the entries in the list may be "Pierre Andre GIBEAU" or "Joseph Pierre
GIBEAU", etc, but they will all be "GIBEAU". However, when you access the
actual baptismal record you will likely see variations (e.g., GIBEAULT,
GIBAULT, GIBO, JIBEAU, etc). So that's what I now have in my own online
database. Otherwise, with some of the more "creative" misspellings or
variations I've encountered, it could look like two individuals in the index
who were from the same family (even siblings perhaps) didn't share the same
surname. But, to maintain the spelling as I encountered it in the source
record, the actual record that the standardized name in the list is linked
to, will display the name using my convention (standard name followed by
misspelling or variation in parenthesis).

If you want to see this in practice please visit my web site
(www.bourguignon.ca) and look at the Main Index.

Thanks.
Gerry

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