I would like to know the opinions of others about how to enter surnames for women.
I always enter the maiden names, but often or usually (in the late 1800s to present time) women have adopted their new husband's name and are listed as such in the records.
For example, Maria José is married in 1888 (I am just making all this up) and married António Vieira Borba, so is listed as Maria José Borba.
Her parents are listed as José Inácio Parreira and Faustina Cândida.
So what do you do? Are you going to call her Maria José Borba in your genealogy program? It would certainly be valid since that is what the priest recorded.
But I don't do it if I already know her ancestry and it doesn't include Borba. I call her just Maria José. And if in the future I ever see her listed as Maria José Parreira, I will add in Parreira to her name.
If I don't yet know her ancestry, I enter her with Borba, pending further research that reveals her ancestry. If not found in her ancestry, then I remove Borba.
Another example, in case I am not clear with the above:
Amélia de Jesus married in 1897 (another I am just creating now). Her husband is Amaro José da Silveira. So she is listed as Amélia de Jesus Silveira.
Her parents are Inácio Vitorino de Sousa and Paula Josefa.
I would list her as Amélia de Jesus Silveira, but pending further research, since her parents don't use it.
If I found that her maternal ancestry includes Silveira, I would keep Silveira as listed. But if she had no Silveira, I would then remove it once I made that discovery.
What would you do?
One often finds, but certainly not always, that this lady has children and is not listed with her husband's family name. That might also be where her own ancestral name is found once or twice.
One final thing. At death, if the woman has adopted the surname of the husband when married, she is usually listed with her married name in the death record.
In my opinion, one must always note exactly how each person is listed, but when you want to know her maiden name, you can't include the one used after she married.
And I always put just her maiden name in the genealogy program, along with all the notes about how she is listed throughout her life.
It starts with her at birth, continues with her name as godmother before she married, name at marriage, name used for any children at their baptisms, name used as godmother already married, and finally at her death. It can also continue after her death when she could be listed as grandmother or mother of a child who married after her death. There might be 10 or more variations on her name over the years.
Doug da Rocha Holmes
Sacramento, California
Pico & Terceira Genealogist
916-550-1618
-- Sacramento, California
Pico & Terceira Genealogist
916-550-1618
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