Re: [Gramps-devel] Proposals for additional name fields

[Frederico M. <fs...@gm...>]

Hello,

I already said quite a bit in the bug thread. My position at this time
is that the feature is very useful, but that it isn't as simple to
implement as I first expected.

Julio's  overall post is excellent in fleshing out many of the details
and possible problems. The situation he describes is similar for
Portugal, except that the ordering of the surnames is different ( It's
Given Name | Mother Surname(s)| Father Surname(s) )

2009/9/9 Julio Sánchez <jul...@gm...>:
(...)
> BTW, in the Spanish-speaking world, genealogists use the suffix field for a
> second surname (vide program GDS that does that explicitly, but PAF and
> others can be abused to achieve it), but I find that extremely
> unsatisfactory.

As do I, this is something that I think should be avoided like the
plague. It sounds like a good idea until one tries to make something
with the data and reports don't work, other people have trouble with
the data we send them, etc.

In Portugal most of the people I know end up simply using the "Given
Name" field as a "Everything but the last name" one. This because the
last name is the one that is inherited by children (well, most of the
time, once one reaches the 17th century all bets are off, real
patronymics appear, etc). For my Spanish ancestors I add the last
surnames and then use the Group as feature (example: Name: Santiago
Family Name: Ramón y Cajal  Group As: Ramón).

BTW, the idea of putting every surname in the Family Name is
semantically more correct, but extremely bothersome to use and
somewhat detached from the way surnames actually work.

I'll leave the implementation details to the developers. In general
terms the proposal to add a "general" field to enter the surnames is
something that I find sensible, with the following requirements:

- GEDCOM export should be straightforward. The flattening of the
surnames should have very clear and simple rules
- The data entry dialog should be easy to use

Additionally I'm unsure how GEDCOM import would work out.

Having said that this is something that is lacking in just about every
Genealogy software out there, and is something that stems from the
lack of support in GEDCOM, that assumes that every surname is "equally
important", possibly because where the LDS is at most people only have
one surname. However IIRC there is at least some additional
flexibility when using programs which use the "/" delimiter for family
names, since the location of it in the name becomes a non-issue
(important for Spanish names).


Regards,

Frederico