Am not sure what to do with this file - help or suggestions needed

Question

This uncle was born as James Henry Smith but unsure if he legally changed his name - which his death suggests or not.  .  He died with his name shown as James M Henry (no idea what the M stands for??).  Was told he just dropped the Smith but unsure if this was a legal change or???

Answer 1

Whether the change was legal or not, you would just annotate the name change in the bio.  His name should remain Smith as that is his last name at birth.  Just note that it is not known if the name change was legal, but he went by James M. Henry since whenever.

Comments

Thank you so much.  Your answer made complete sense to me.