MyFamilyTree SURNAMES suggestions

[benzden]

MyFamilyTree - SURNAMES Suggestions:
- lists:
. MASTER - includes all surnames 'actually' contained in MyFamilyTree
. POSSIBLE - includes all MASTER surnames and all combinations of those
MASTER surnames that are possible; usually from combining
the common prefixes, common middle(s) and common suffixes
Example:
Prefixes CAR-, CER-, CHI-, CIL-, CIR-, CUR-, CYR-, KAR-,
KER-, KIL-, KIR-, KUR-, KYR-, QUR-, SIER-,
SIL-, SIR-, SUR-, SYR-, TZY-, ZAR-, ZER-, ZIL-,
ZIR-, ZUR- ZYR-
Middle -A, -E-, -I-, -IL-, -L-, -LL-, -J-, -R-, -Y-
Suffixes -C, -CA, -CAS, -CE, -CES, -CI, -CIS,
-CK, -CKA, -CKE, -CKES, -CKI, -CKIS,
-CKO, -CKOS, -CKOU, -CKS, -CKU, -CKUS,
-CO, -COS, -COU, -CQUE, -CS, -CU, -CUS,
-K, -KS, -QUE, -X
[ All possible combinations need to be included so that persons with
any spelling can find the appropriate family tree web site. ]
. ODDBALL - unusual 'actual' surnames in MyFamilyTree that were changed
by the owner through legal or otherwise during their life;
spellings with strange prefixes, middle(s) and/or suffixes
explained by linguistic conventions; and geographic,
linguistic or demographic idiosyncrasies
Examples: Aristedes Kyriakou changed his last name to Kayes
while living in San Francisco after immigrating
from Greece.
All Cyriaco were changed to Ciriaco in Brazil when
the Portuguese alphabet eliminated the Y.
Chiarkas was derived from Chiriacka which came
from Kyriakakos, which itself means either "son
of Kyriakou" or "Kyriakou NOT!" or "???".
Cirak/Cir·k derived from Cyriacus in Hungary.
Csorna as a contraction of Cyriacus de Serna.
- surname spellings should be allowed for each of the various life event
categories where they have happened when not everyone was literate and
depended upon those who were literate to spell their surname;
for example: birth, baptism, confirmation, graduations, attendance,
census, licenses, news articles, death, burial, and so on;
(The FORM should allow the add a category function with new categories
added to the options as they are identified by users; in other words
don't show a whole bunch of blanks that could apply, just show those
that do apply as we fill them in.)
- surnames should only be added via the FORM process when an individual
profile is created and/or edited - this, of course, should be done
automatically by the FORM when the SURNAME TAB/ENTRY is changed;
(removing an initial spelling in favor of one edited later may not be
necessary since it probably applies to another life event, anyway);
(FORM is used in web page programming sense)
- we should have a separate SINGLE place (applicable to our entire online
family tree) where all POSSIBLE surname spellings can be manually
inserted - I have 3,188 (three thousand one hundred eighty-eight) in
mine, so far; what's the sense of having a place for people to search
IF THEIR SURNAME CAN'T BE FOUND ANYWHERE?
- those surnames in our SURNAME DATABASE should be uploadable via .csv
and/or other similar database creation file;

[RobertaMarques]

The name change when going from one country to another is something that I always forget. Thanks for the reminder!

Looking for Isabel where it is Elizabeth is really common, John where it is Giovanni etc.

[benzden]

The most unusual name changes come from alphabets associated with other countries - those are the ones that surprised me the most; such as the Welsh Gwric for Cyriac and the ?Arabic? Heryakos for Cyriacus.

After 46 years of research, I now pretty much ignore the actual spelling in favor of the sound or pronunciation in the language in question - minor deviations in spellings are especially ignored until they become the common spelling for a branch of the family when literacy also becomes more common and family members can actually respond to the question: "how is that spelled?"

[dna]

Yes, for myFamilyTree to be truly usable, it would need to have functionality of a good genealogical program.

First name, Polish language 19th century example:

• baptismal record: Laurentius (in Latin); however if records from the part of Poland occupied by Russia, and after 1831 then Лаврентий;
• official name spelling afterwards: most likely Wawrzyniec, but also entirely equivalent form of Laurencjusz; depending on local customs both could be used interchangeably;
• daily usage: most likely Wawrzyn, but also entirely equivalent form of Laurenty; depending on local customs both could be used interchangeably;
• marriage registry: most likely like in the baptismal record;
• death/burial registry: any of the above...
• diminutive forms: many...

W.

P.S. Please see also my thread http://forums.familytreedna.com/showthread.php?t=36172 Beyond English alphabet?, especially an example from lgmayka about how FTDNA does not do intelligent matching, even where it would be easy to do...

[benzden]

searching when names contain special characters

Yeah, having every variation of the name, including the special characters on keyboards of another language would be a must in order to find anything efficiently.

That should be another feature of creating MyFamilyTree that would be done "AUTOMATICALLY" by the program at FTDNA when it encounters a new surname entry by a users using their FORM to do so.