[Gramps-users] Suggestion: Aliases?

[Jesse M. <da...@gm...>]

Hello,

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about better citation methods.
 I've discussed this on the list before, and I'd like to hear everyone's
thoughts before I put in a wish-list request.

I'm really leaning towards putting in a request for aliases, and I'd like
to hear everyone's thoughts.

An alias would be an additional field, entered in by the user, sortable and
searchable.  But unlike other fields, an alias is for organizational/data
entry/research purposes only.

The example I gave before was census records - where you'd have multiple
census records from the same town at the same date being cited.  The record
may be of the format:  "US Federal Census - 1843 - NY - Anytown - Page 7".
 It is a biblographical citation (hopefully).  It's purpose is to
accurately cite the source.

An alias is whatever we want to call it, such as "US Census - John Smith
Family - 1840 - Anytown", or whatever.  It's just for use when we're
entering and reviewing data.  It probably wouldn't even be used on reports.

But it seems a useful field to have, and not just for citations.  Imagine
we have a typical large tree where most of the individuals share similar
names.  Like many trees, we probably have more than a few individuals with
only a first name.  On the list view, it's very easy to have several
"Mary"s (no last name known).  With aliases, we could distinguish between
them - so "Mary, wife of John Smith", versus "Mary, wife of Robert Jones",
etc.  Another good place would be for those with large trees where families
tend to pass down the same given name frequently - where there could be
several different generations of "John Smiths".  In that case we may use an
alias like "John Smith [3], son of Samuel Smith [2] son of John Smith [1]"
and "John Smith [2], son of Samuel Smith", and "John Smith [3], son of
Thomas Smith [2], son of John Smith [1]", etc.  It could be anything, as
long as it serves to distinguish between two similar people for the
researcher.  (Patronymic naming schemes can also frequently fall victim to
having many individuals with the same name.)

Thoughts?