Last name at birth guidance

Question

This woman has her last name at birth as Sutor which is the name used on most but not all of the family. It is also spelt Suttor. However, her baptism record spells the name as Sutter. Her marriage has Suter as do nearly all the baptisms for her children. Should the LNAB be changed to reflect this spelling? Sutor is the spelling that carried through to modern times as shown by this entry on Scotlands People for her son's death.

CUMMING

WILLIAM

75

SUTOR

1897

091/ 28

Ardersier

Guidance please as to whether her LNAB should be changed.

Answer 1

Help:Name Fields says that "In particular, the spelling that appears in a birth record should be used for the Last Name at Birth unless there are other documents from at or near the time of birth that inform us about a more common or correct spelling."

Comments

Thank you. But now I am told that the record transcription is wrong, so I am waiting for a copy of the original to check that. Another person thinks the name on the baptism record is Suttor, so maybe that is what it should be. I am helping someone learn how to use WikiTree.

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Help Name Fields also says:

It is usually the formal name as it appears in official documents at the time of birth. However, it may not be exactly what appears in a birth record if:

• There was a spelling mistake or error in the document, or if the family name was more commonly spelled in a different way at the time of the birth (see the spelling conventions section above).
• The person was adopted as an infant and they never used their birth name.

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Right, Melanie.  Thank you!

Answer 2

Margaret, at times I have seen the WikiTree LNAB rule ignored if a transcription obviously disagrees with the usual family spelling.

And then sometimes the name evolves again in the next generation.  So what I would probably do is use the common spelling of the family name at her time of birth for the LNAB and put variations in the Other Last Names field.

Risking a flag for topic, I also want to take this opportunity to deplore some people's entering of names without bothering to capitalize them, as was apparently done with her profile.

Comments

Two profiles have been created with different LNABs. I found these when looking for my Cumming. I have initiated a merge with the profile manager and got put on the trusted list. Then I will edit the LNAB to the correct name once I have got all the information.