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What's in a name?
Not sure where this best fits, but this was my best guess.
Names. Those of us who spend a bunch of time here and on other genetic genealogy sites have collected lots of names. I use Genome Mate to help keep them all straight, but I'm sure there are other options.
Now that Genome Mate allows us to import the names from Ancestry (still no chromosome info available), I thought I'd go through all of my names in alpha order to see if I can find matches across Ancestry, FTDNA, 23andMe, and gedmatch.
Not so much.
Ancestry encourages the use of login ID's instead of names. They will allow you to use your name, but you can't change it. Gedmatch encourages the use of real names, but will allow the use of nicknames. FTDNA insists on real names, but a few people have gone around it and used nicknames. 23andMe is mostly real names.
Once you get past that, you find that women sometimes use their maiden names and sometimes use their married names. On Gedmatch, it's not at all uncommon to use first initials and last names. On Ancestry, if you test someone else and attach them to your account, they will show as only their initials (no option to display name that I can find).
So where does this leave us? Here's what you'd see if you were looking at the info of me and my parents.
Ancestry - me - TeresaJill, mom - K. H. (test not complete)
23andMe - me - Teresa Heberer (my maiden name), mom - Kathy McCombs (her maiden name), dad - Wayne Heberer
FTDNA - me - Teresa Hulvey (married name), dad - GW Heberer (test not complete)
Gedmatch - me - TJ Heberer, mom - ?? don't know and can't look it up, dad - GWHeberer
It's easy to see how someone might be confused.
So, is there some agreed upon standard somewhere? If there isn't, there should be. Personally, I think women should use their maiden names.
Has anyone had any luck convincing these companies to allow you to change your name on their site so that it aligns with the others?
Names. Those of us who spend a bunch of time here and on other genetic genealogy sites have collected lots of names. I use Genome Mate to help keep them all straight, but I'm sure there are other options.
Now that Genome Mate allows us to import the names from Ancestry (still no chromosome info available), I thought I'd go through all of my names in alpha order to see if I can find matches across Ancestry, FTDNA, 23andMe, and gedmatch.
Not so much.
Ancestry encourages the use of login ID's instead of names. They will allow you to use your name, but you can't change it. Gedmatch encourages the use of real names, but will allow the use of nicknames. FTDNA insists on real names, but a few people have gone around it and used nicknames. 23andMe is mostly real names.
Once you get past that, you find that women sometimes use their maiden names and sometimes use their married names. On Gedmatch, it's not at all uncommon to use first initials and last names. On Ancestry, if you test someone else and attach them to your account, they will show as only their initials (no option to display name that I can find).
So where does this leave us? Here's what you'd see if you were looking at the info of me and my parents.
Ancestry - me - TeresaJill, mom - K. H. (test not complete)
23andMe - me - Teresa Heberer (my maiden name), mom - Kathy McCombs (her maiden name), dad - Wayne Heberer
FTDNA - me - Teresa Hulvey (married name), dad - GW Heberer (test not complete)
Gedmatch - me - TJ Heberer, mom - ?? don't know and can't look it up, dad - GWHeberer
It's easy to see how someone might be confused.
So, is there some agreed upon standard somewhere? If there isn't, there should be. Personally, I think women should use their maiden names.
Has anyone had any luck convincing these companies to allow you to change your name on their site so that it aligns with the others?
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