Genealogy Chat

See below Rita

Mixed surname siblings/PAF5- advice please I am using the PAF5 system but not very well I am afraid. I have the following problem: the Smiths and the Jones’ The first 5 children of my grandmother were illegitimate and had their mother's surname of Smith. Their father, surname Jones, didn't marry my grandmother until 1914 when he entered the army so that she could have an army allotment from his pay. The last 3 children being legitimate had their mother’s marital name of Jones. I have been entering the 5 illegitimate children under the mother’s maiden name of Smith and the legitimate 3 as Jones’ but I am in a quandary as to whether to enter all the children as Jones’, which would be factually inaccurate; or to keep the Smiths separate from the Jones as heretofore. But then how could it be indicated that the children all had the same parentage even though some were illegitimate and some not? To make things worse Mr. Jones became Mr. Smith for birth registering purpose according to birth certificates for the first 5 siblings but reverted to Mr. Jones after the marriage for the subsequent 3 siblings. Oh, what a tangled web we weave etc Just to complicate matters further one of the three Jones’ changed his name back to Smith when he signed up for WW2, was known as Smith after the war and was buried as a Smith years later. So how do I categorise him? Also, when I decide to call it a day and have the bally tree printed off, then how do I get this gedcom that everyone keeps harping on about? Any advice and comments that you can pass on would be greatly appreciated by this confused individual who keeps putting off the inputting as I get totally bemused. Warm regards to all. Each of you have a happy and healthy New Year. Rita PS: I will be out until this evening but will return like the avenging angel.

Rita What I would do is write in the notes as to who had who as parent's then when you print it off you have it written down. A gedcom is a way of saving your tree, I am not really sure how to do it someone will tell you. Sue

I would double- barrell them myself and call them all Smith Jones, putting an explanation in the notes! OC

If you show all of the children as issue of the same two parents, then regardless of the surname you choose for each individual (and if you are running PAF with the usual default settings, the children will be named automatically with the father's surname), your only real decision is whether to change the surname of the illegitimate children to the mother's name. If the children were registered in the mother's name, (and particularly if there is census or other evidence to show that they were known in that name, at least in childhood), then I would use the mother's name, but for those that adopted the father's name in later life, I would record the father's name in the 'Also Known As' field. If they all have a common father (by which I mean father in common), then they were all either legitimate, or legitimised by the marriage, but if you have any reason to believe that the mother had another partner (whether known or unknown), then the proper course would be to add another spouse, record 'Not married' instead of a marriage date, and link those children to that union, and not to that which resulted in marriage. In PAF this is done by editing the parents' link, by reference to the MRIN (the marriage number), which is unique for each set of parents.

Hi Sue, Old Crone and Clive - Thank you all so much for your input which does clarify things for me and puts things into perspective. I was going round and round in circles trying to decide which was the better option/solution to what had appeared to be an intractable problem. I am what is termed 'easily confused' ; whether that is due to age, booze or sheer stupidity I haven't yet determined. Warmest regards. RIta