For some 60 years I have done genealogy and more than 20 years on the
computer. This includes publishing books on my family history with a
typewriter before computers. Capitalizing surnames was used prior to
computers to differentiate the surname from the given name. I do not know
when it began. Now genealogy programs suggest the alternative of using the
slash between given name and surname. I prefer capitalization of the
surname, but then I am getting old and stuck in my habits.
As far as the standards in Mills book, they are an attempt to bring a
geneaalogists' sourcing comparable to that used by colleges and universites
throughout the country for theses and dissertations, and standards for
publication in historical journals; so your work can be accepted for
publication if you so desire. That is up to you.
Further work needs to be done on the many facets of family history
sooourcing, and genealogy programers need to pay attention to those
standards. Otherwise, our work may not be truly understood by future
generations unless we spell out those standards on a page prior to our work
and stick to them.
Anyway, that is my opinion. I had to add it to this long thread. Once upon
a time not so long ago, colleges, historians and librarians did not have
much respect for genealogists. You cannot do much research in historical
records without that respect unless you do it all on computer. Then you do
not have the complete story.
Best wishes for success with your sourcing in this program which is the
best I have seen so far.
Winifred
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jennie Goodwin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 1:49 PM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] autocomplete names capitalized
> Jenny:
>
> I suspect that the use of all caps for surnames
> evolved like this. Some early capturers of
> genealogical data, maybe even before any genealogical
> programs existed, saw a need to identify the surname.
> They only "created" a single "field" for this name,
> and so capitalized the surname to visually highlight
> it.
>
> Genealogists needed to know surnames (as opposed to
> the rest of the name) for searching and sorting
> purposes.
>
> Many people evidently kept this all-caps convention as
> they started using genealogy programs. As these
> programs matured, and reports became available, they
> probably received complaints from non-genealogists who
> read family narratives where everyone's surname was
> all caps.
>
> By this time, the genealogy programs were
> sophisticated enough to have several fields for the
> name (prefix, given, etc.). So some genealogists,
> especially those who printed and distributed narrative
> reports, started entering or changing surnames to
> match the correct spelling, spaces, and case. The
> programs also provided the capability to display the
> surname, at least on screens and maybe some reports,
> in all caps or bracketed by slashes.
>
> Like Ron Ferguson said, it's really a matter of
> personal choice, rather than finding and following a
> standard. In fact, I'm finding that the format and
> structure of reports is starting to structure the way
> I enter data into Legacy, especially with regards to
> what I want in the body and what I want in the
> endnotes of reports.
>
> This thread reminded me of a military character in a
> 1960's anti-war satire by Joseph Heller, Catch-22. He
> was Major Major Major, as in rank, given, surname!
>
> As for identifying surnames, my family doesn't come
> from England, so I don't know what part of Andrew
> Lloyd Webber or Arthur Conan Doyle is the surname --
> I'd need help entering them. Likewise for names from
> other cultures.
>
> Jennie
>
> --- Jenny M Benson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
> > deemails wrote
> > >Before I knew better, I capitalized all my
> > surnames.
> >
> > I have read all this thread so far and no one else
> > has queried this, so
> > I feel I must have got it wrong, but I thought it
> > was "Correct" to enter
> > Surnames always in capital letters.
> >
> > Is this not, then, standard genealogical practice?
> > --
> > Jenny M Benson
> >
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Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to
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online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp
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