Would like to enter 'other last names' on initial screen for matching

Question

I would like the 'other last names(s)' field to be on the initial entry screen to be used for the matching routine. I have run across many people whose current last name is not the name on the grave marker and not on the FindAGrave memorial. If I put in just the correct current last name I may not find a match. I also may forget to enter them (for a while). And yes, I do fix FindAGrave too.

Comments

Roger, are you able to install the WikiTree Browser Extension?

WBE has an option to add Other Last Names plus additional fields to the profile creation screen. See

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:WikiTree_Browser_Extension#Add_Person_Redesign

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Even if those fields are displayed and filled in, they aren't used for matching. Although it will help with forgetting to enter them.

Roger, are these people with unknown Last Names at Birth?

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Hi Jamie, I’ve emailed you about this problem too and given some specific examples of profiles that are not located currently because the search function does not look at other last names.  There are many reasons why this field   may be populated. It may be a married name (where the person married more than once, or divorced and reverted to using their birth name), they  may have simply used another name for some reason (adoption, fostering, name change). I sometimes put common misspelling s in the other name field too. Still, duplicates get created .

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Many duplicates could be avoided if people would run searches before creating profiles.

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I realise this and do but wikitree does not currently look at the other names field for matching purposes and this is a problem in some circumstances.

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As Project Leader for New Netherland (which deals with many unexpected spellings,  as well as a many estimsted dates), I am very aware of the limitations of Search here. However,  Search has been improved  a lot over the years, and I want people to.take advantage of the improvements. The Other Last Names and Other Nicknames are now queried in Name Search, but are not yet considered in the searches that generate possible matches when we start to create a profile.

Answer 1

I don't use browser extesions. I am always running out of memory anyway. If the idea is good enough to add to a browser extension, it shou be good enough to add for the rest of us.

I may have used unknown once.

The main problems I encounter have a wife married multiple times and the kids father died first with the wife's name on the marker. She then remarries once or twice, so I have to look up all these names before starting just to know the answer to the match question.

The reason for this is to ask that other last names be used for matching.

Comments

The issue here is not whether this is a good idea, but rather whether it is feasible or practical to implement.

The browser extension that Jim mentioned enables us to put Other Last Names on the initial Add Person form (the feature that you asked for). It does not insert them into the matching process that is done when we start to create a new profile (the feature that you actually wanted to have).

The matching process for Add Person is designed for fairly simple cases of duplication. It's not intended for the kind of research that's needed for complicated situations like what you describe. And we have members who complain (appropriately so) that they are overwhelmed by the number of matches they are shown, particularly when there are many similar names. Fortunately, Name Search allows us to (1) query all name fields on existing profiles (2) sort and filter our results (something the Add Person form does not enable). This allows us to focus on the most relevant results. (Yes, we may need to search on the multiple names a person might have used, but it's more efficient to do that in Name Search than on the Add Person form.) When I run Name Search before creating a profile, by the time I get the list of matches on the Add Person form, I am rather sure the person doesn't already have a profile, so I can review the match list (even a long list) very quickly.

Jamie and the Tech team are working on additional improvements to Search functions here, but there are many challenges (some of them related to technical things like computer memory) to be dealt with.