I am having problems knowing how to list members of a family who frequently have their names spelt in several different ways on official documents. I have read some of the posts on the same subject which suggest using the earliest written record, but in the family I'm looking at all siblings would have differently spelt last names.
In the 1830s-40s baptism register of his children, the father's last name is spelt differently each time a child is baptised, for all his children. These are also the earliest records for the father, so I also don't know which spelling to use for him. Subsequent census records and other official records all use different spellings too.
I intend listing them as per the individual different spelling for each sibling, and as per the earliest child's baptism for the father, but also add all the alternative spellings to each entry as a 'confusion warning'.
Is this correct?
I have not yet added all these earlier siblings, but is it best to use the spelling on the earliest record as described above (which would give them all differently spelt names, often also different to subsequent spellings) or should I choose the most used spelling and use the same spelling for each sibling (still with a 'confusion warning' listing all the other spellings?
In alphabetical order, some of the spellings found for the family I'm looking at include: Bagaley, Baggaley, Baggarley, Baggley, Baggulay, Bagguley, Bagley.
I would appreciate any advice. Thanks.
The answers provided by Joe Murray and Ellen Smith where just what I was looking for and provide a link to extensive and correct information about the Wiki Tree standards for completing name fields, and precise information about recording different surnames.
In my particular case, and to answer my own question, (apart from obvious spelling errors or obvious mistakes) I need to
- Use the baptism surname as 'Last Name at Birth',
- Use the death or burial surname as 'Current Last Name',
- Use all other spellings of the surname separated with commas as 'Other Last Name(s)',
- and add a '''Research Note''' explaining the reasons for the different names.
Sorted. My thanks go to Joe Murray for providing the link to the Wiki Tree Name Standards, and to Ellen Smith for the reminder that the '''Other Last Names(s)''' box takes more than one name.
