Best practice management suggestions for multiple surname spellings across source docs?

Question

Sourcing docs for individuals and their families often identify surname spelling variations that are unique to specific docs. eg birth record says Roark, census says Rowork, Roach, Rorke, death cert/headstone say Roork, etc. Understanding that each family group develops a surname spelling consensus, it is important to appreciate that certain source docs will not be identified if the spelling variants are not recognized. Another example occurs when a transcriber misspells...

Comments

I add all (additional) surname spelling variations, including obvious misspellings, that I find in source documents and transcriptions to the Other Last Name(s) field. That is my interpretation of the referenced link.

By including all spelling variations, I feel I make it easier for my fellow researchers to find relevant source documents/transcriptions and to match our common relatives without creating duplicate profiles.

Answer 1

The policy is to use the spelling that the person represented by the profile would have used. Usually that means whatever was on the birth certificate goes in the LNAB and Proper First Name and Middle Name fields. If they changed the spelling of their names, then that goes in Preferred Name, Other Nicknames, Current Last Name, and Other Last Names fields.

Transcription errors should be mentioned in the Biography or Research Notes section of the Notes field.

Comments

How de we get from "what the person would have used" to "what is on the birth certificate"?

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You are fortunate to have a birth certificate or church record! The approach I have taken is to document significant variants in the biography, but to let the source citation speak to the exact search string for transcription errors (especially since these vary by repository). For example see Sands-1867 and citation 13 for the 1915 census.

Extreme cases do merit discussion in the biography, and also Research Notes. See Toepelt-2 and Toepelt-1.

As you can see from these profiles, I’ve learned the hard way, whatever you do, fully cite your sources (so you can find them again).