Need to correct surname spelling.

Question

The surname "La Marca" consists of two words; however, it appears as "Lamarca" on this page:

https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/LAMARCA

How can this be corrected? 

Removingthespacebetweenarticle"La"and"Marca"issthesameasremovingallotherspacesbetweenwords.Furthermore,thesurnameisItalian,notScottish,solistingthesurnameas"LaMarca"isalsoWRONG!

Comments

The list of profiles includes: La Marca, LaMarca, and Lamarca so seems to be working as it should. When doing a search for any of those variations, they all should come up in the resulting list and they are.

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However,that'snotthepointasthesurnameisincorrect.YesI'mremovingallaoffthespacesinordertomakeapoint.

The problem isn't whether if it's turning up correctly in searches - the problem is that the name is WRONG. I find it VERY offensive (I mean this quite literally) that the surname isn't being written properly - as it has been for HUNDREDS of years. The only correct form of the surname is La Marca. It's not Lamarca, LaMarca (this name is NOT Scottish, which uses camel casing - Italian names do NOT use that), or anything else. Case in point, I recently had a problem with my state DMV refusing to recognize surnames that contain two (or more) words, although voter registration, and all other state and Federal agencies do recognize it as two words. I told them that their refusal was RACIST, and insulting to my cultural heritage. Well . . . they fixed it.

Egregious errors (for which no justification can be given except that the programmers who have permitted this to happen don't know what they're doing) such as this one have a way of becoming "fact" very, very quickly and displays gross ignorance on the part of many. Case in point - another one of my ancestors is Margaret Riegle. When her name was recorded, it was ALWAYS Margaret Riegle or Peggy Riegle. At one point, I was aware of MORE THAN 150 others across the web (that may be even higher now) who list her name as Margaret Peggy Riegel - they assign "Peggy" as her middle name, which is clearly is not. Peggy is a nickname for Margaret and nothing more. There are no sources, anywhere, the list her name as "Margaret Peggy."

Bottom line - names matter! Whether or not searches point at something is irrelevant if the information is wrong.

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Jeff, may I suggest that you take a step back and just _breathe_ for a bit?

You're getting offended because the computer files things without spaces. That's like taking offense when the line of code on your passport puts everything in uppercase (and probably also eats all the spaces).

I've been living with a surname that has a hyphen in the middle for 23 years now. Trust me, I understand full well the frustration and anger that name-mangling can cause. (People take That Dratted Hyphen as permission to drop half the name, or to re-arrange its parts in creative ways.)

Answer 1

The system standardizes surnames for the purposes of the Surname Genealogy pages. This includes removing any characters such as apostrophes, dashes, spaces, and changing letters such as ö to o (see https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/JONSDOTTER). Yes, it may not be exactly how a particular person spelled their last name, but it makes it easier for people to find related people entered by other users who may or may not have used the proper punctuation.

Comments

Again,thisisnotabouthowindividualswishtospelltheirnamesbutsituationswherehighlystandarizedrulesofsyntaxandgrammarconetoplay. Also, it’s a simple matter to alter algorithms to accommodate such names. As another poster stated, data should drive computer algorithms, not the other way around.

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It is intentionally done, there are no plans to change it.

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JamieNelson. Despicable. Obviously, WikiTree is not concerned with accuracy.

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I'm sorry you disagree with the way WikiTree chooses to group similar last names. The names of the individual profiles on the surname page are displayed as entered.

If this is a deal breaker for you, you may want to close your account and try another one of the collaborative family trees such as FamilySearch, Geni, or WeRelate that may group surnames in a way that you find less offensive.

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I have no intention of contributing, in anyway, to a so-called site that allegedly promotes shoddy genealogical practices. As I stated above, the refusal of WikiTree to correct the situation is racist, bigoted, and is an egregious violation of ethnic diversity.

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This most certainly is NOT the “best answer.”

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There are certainly lots of ways the system can improve to be better about handling ethnic diversity. For example, better handling of indigenous cultures that don't use surnames, better handling of cultures where the family name is displayed first, and better handling of languages that are read right-to-left.

But the site is mostly made up of Americans with European ancestry like yourself, so it's quite a stretch to claim that WikiTree is racist and bigoted against most of its members because you don't like how surnames are indexed.

Answer 2

That is just the way the system does it.  It's a technical issue.  

Also: people spell things in different ways.  I have a female I am working on who spells her surname "De Montier".  Yet her father spells it "Demontier". But in this case, technical rules squish it together. Breathe.  Breathe. :)

Comments

This is NOT the correct "answer" and it's not a "technical issue" - computers deal with spaces EXACTLY the same was as they account for all other symbols. See my comment above. I find it OFFENSIVE that imaginary "technical rules squish" words together. Correct grammar and syntax rules override such nonsense.

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The data should drive the software, and not the other way around.

Answer 3

I work on Sicilian profiles some. I have seen surnames changing through time. I haven't added any La Marca or Lamarca etc, but here is an example of the surname changing through time in different records.

1) Birth registry that has the surname of "Lamarca".  (https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ud18822068)

2) Her parents marriage record the name is "La Marca" (https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua18802532/5dAXeNv)

3) Her father's birth record is "la Marca" (https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua36156194/0ZQJ3d6)

Comments

However, the surname has NOT changed over time - yes, theremaybeexceptionsbutthatdoesntmeanweshouldchangesyntaxandgrammartoappeaeseerrorsorigmorance.