Bug in GEDCom's with multiple names

[tulrose]

When a person has multiple names in a submitted Gedcom FTDNA randomly picks which name to display.

e.g. My gt grandfather was Henry, grandfather was Harry (also known as Henry), and my uncle was Harold (also known as Harry). Grandfather Harry was often called Henry to distinguish him from his son Harold. Harry and Harold both had alternate names (Henry and Harry) in the Gedcom I uploaded. The primary name is the name that should have been displayed but it wasn't. Grandfather Harry was consistently shown as Henry, as was my gt grandfather Henry.

I've reported this to support and got the following reply:

"Thank you for your email. You are correct that currently the system can only handle one field per entry, so when their are two name fields and so on it can cause problems. I will pass your feedback along to the IT department so they may take it under consideration.

Darren Marin
Family Tree DNA "

This is just an FYI for anyone who is interested.

Rosemary

[Lklundin]

When a person has multiple names in a submitted Gedcom FTDNA randomly picks which name to display.

The GEDCOM standard allows for multiple name entries for a person.

However, it does not really specify how such multiple names are to be interpreted.

So whatever FTDNA decides to do, there will surely be some genealogy software that interprets such multiple names differently.

I would personally prefer a deterministic behaviour, with a mild preference for the first entry.

[tulrose]

I agree. The point I'm making is that FtDNA should display the preferred name and have the ability to display the others as well.

It's a fairly primitive display as it is.

Rosemary

[FaithRisa]

Bug in GEDCom's with multiple names

I guess this issue still exists. I posted my GEDCOM and then quickly removed it. It should only post the preferred name that I use.

[tulrose]

I got around it by removing the alternate names from the GEDCom I uploaded here.

Rosemary