Genealogy Chat

It really is a most frutrating aspect of this Site,the way some lady members will register in their maiden name,and then conduct their business by their married name,or vice versa.It is particularly frustrating in the event of contacting someone who you have contacted previously,and then going to your 'Contacts' to look up the previous messages,only to find the name is not there. Regards William Russell Jones Cefn Mawr Wrexham.

which would you say is the corect way then ? My maiden name is the name that is registered here, the married name is my legal name now! jess

Hi William, It's one of Genes quirks I'm afraid - nothing to do with us.... I think it lets us chat on here etc with Married name but in other things it uses the first name on the tree, which is obviously birth or maiden name. But I'll wait to be corrected....... It really is very confusing I agree - Sarah :-) Lozano or King, whatever...!!

I have filled in the boxes on GR for surname and birth surname as I thought fit.....ie my current surname and my birth surname. I suggest you try complaining to GR! Merry

I think I'm agreeing with posts above when I say... My understanding is that we appear in our tree under maiden name, but in other transactions by registered name (i.e., usually, married name). Unfortunately, there are one or two other circumstances where the maiden name appears - such as some of the message functions connected with trees. It really is confusing. It would be more helpful for us if both names were logged in such circumstances. I know I find it very irritating to get a message from Mary Bloggs, only to find - after wading all that way through - that she's Mary Wilson in my Contacts list! Christine

Well I hope I don't sound too sexist when I say that its something that doesn't occur when contacting men! Regards William Russell Jones Cefn Mawr Wrexham.

LOL, William, You probably didn't have to change your name by law when you married !!! Sarah :-) (it's not really a choice is it!)

I have always been under the impression that there is no legal requirement to take your husbands name on marriage ...... When my niece got married some years back she kept her maiden name and just added her marriedname after it. Angie

Is there a Mrs Jones, William????! Merry

I get just as frustrated as you William that you can send a message to someone whose name on a thread is one thing and the person comes up in your contacts list as something else. But it's NOT our fault. It's GR's. Perhaps we women should start a compaign to make you men change your surname on marriage to the woman's. Then we can all get frustrated with you!!!, lol. Kath. x

If Kath's proposed that I'll second it All in favour ???

Bliss not a problem for me were a very modern couple and my hubby took my name lol Angie

The taking of husbands name on marriage is a courtesy and not a legal requirement. Incidentally, In Canada, married women do use their husbands names but their legal name is their birth name

In my view everyone should have to register a ''screen name'' (or ''nic'') when they sign up for this site, and that should be it - that name would then be the identity by which you were known on here - for messages, contacts, shared trees, etc. The current system is ridiculous, whereby people can change their screen identity at will. It's also been open to abuse, with people assuming other identities for flaming and other antisocial behaviour. Most other chat sites don't allow it - so why does GR?

a lot of people on here are annoyed to say the least with GR's system. The only choice Women get is the same as Men ,what user name we wish to use. for the TREE maiden names are used. For registration or payment info Current name is used (otherwise how would any of be able to pay using a credit card). It does not cross reference names, to make anyone's life easier. But then would all females, like all of their names to be known? it comes down then to using data safely. What happens with adopted people? It must be difficult if you are known by more than one name. What if someone wants to do their tree but doesn't want to be traced? The system is set up badly, It does not cross reference all names used by the person who's tree it is, to make anyone's life easier. But then would all females, like all of their names to be known? it comes down then to using data safely. I don't think you should be able to change your user name, everytime you fancy a change, this leads to confusion & can potentially be very dangerous if you don't know it is who you may be contacting/ chatting to!! karen

Just a newbie here but it would make sense that the seach keys on a partial match in the surname field rather than an exact match. This way you could put for example: Smith/Jones Smith (Jones) Smith (nee Jones) And they would all work for both surnames. Hopefully has already been thought of before but am surprised this is an issue in a professional geneological site such as this and with my limited knowledge of database search contexts, I know this can be done with a simple change to the database.