Question

How do I request that surnames be linked with each other when you're doing a search or looking for matches for different profiles? For example, my last name has some alternatives in the top right hand corner, but from my research I know that the variations of my name are far more numerous. Can I add them myself, or can they only be added by mods or a higher level project?

Comments

Hi Anonymous. See

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Variant_Names_Project

As described there, data from WeRelate is used in generating linked, related or "see also" surnames. It is possible for you to update their variant lists.

(It should however be noted that this will change at some point in the future. See Jamie Nelson's comment at this link.)

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Thank you so much Jim! I appreciate it :)

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Also I tried to set this as the answer but it won't let me for some reason...

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You're welcome, Anonymous, I'm glad this was helpful. (It can't be selected since it's a comment, not an answer—because I happened to know already, it didn't seem enough work to count as a full answer :-)

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Jim Richardson: the only confirmed McCool surname variant on WeRelate is McCoole, which I added almost three years ago. Yet WikiTree doesn't offer McCoole as a variant at all.

As of today, here are WikiTree's related surnames (no tested McCool has a Y-DNA match to any of these surnames within the past 1,000 years):

About 1207 MCCOOLs. Related surnames: COLE (38209) MCDOWELL (7992) MCCALL (5950) MCDOUGALL (4556) COLES (4323) MCCAULEY (3525) COYLE (3281) COULSON (2226) COWLES (2230) MCAULEY (1457) MCCOLL (1292) MCDOUGAL (1276) MCCULLY (895) MCHALE (699) MCCULLEY (685).

How do we get McCoole to come up on WikiTree instead of these computer-generated, unrelated surnames?

Thanks,
Kevin Ireland
McCool One-name Study Admin

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Hi Kevin. In the past, the answer was what I said above: you could update the variant lists on WeRelate, in the hope that they would be transferred again to WikiTree.

However, Chris Whitten has announced that WikiTree development plans now include

• Allow for more direct editing of name variants.

So the best option seems to be to wait until that happens and details are provided of how to request updates under the new system.