When merging profiles, what can I do to preserve the last name spelling.

Question

I have been receiving requests to merge profiles for my family profiles with the last name Paramoure. There are several ways to spell this last name. My branch of this family spells our name Paramoure. I would like to be able to preserve this in my profile. Does anyone have any suggestions how to do this and still merge profiles?

Many thanks,

Nancy Frost

Comments

When there are multiple spellings of a surname you should put the one that is documented as the LNAB and then put alternates in the "Other last names" field.

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LNAB spellings in WikiTree are supposed to be based on the way the person's last name was spelled at or near the time of their birth. This may not be the way later generations of the family like to spell the name...

Sometimes projects will project-protect a profile with the "correct" name spelling in order to ensure that the merge goes in the desired direction.  Do you have evidence to support the choice of a particular spelling for the LNAB?

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Ohhh I'd like to know how to do that.  I have a member who insists on adding people who don't spell my last name the way I spell it.

I've started [putting comments like don;t use his info.  This is not the way it's spelled".  He's compromised all my hard work.

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It is not uncommon to find situations where different branches of a modern family have different spellings of the same family name. Rather than letting one branch of the family decree that their spelling is the correct spelling for the ancestral name, we try to give each of our ancestors the name spelling(s) that appeared in records created during their lifetime.

Answer 1

Be the last person to approve; then you will be the person to complete the merge, and can make sure what the LNAB will be.  You may have spelled it wrong in your question; you say these requests call it Paramoure, while you call it Paramoure.  Can't see a difference, myself.

Answer 2

1. LNAB for a person can be different from others in the same family or from different generations, so may not follow how your branch spells it. LNAB should be based on the spelling from the earliest known documentation for that specific person, discounting typos, etc.

2. That said, during the merging process there is a selection at the top of the merge page "click here to reverse the merge", so either profile-ID can be designated as the remaining one. 

3. Even after the merge, LNAB can be changed by the profile manager.