Re: [Gramps-users] Gramps-users Digest, Vol 90, Issue 7

[Peter K. <pj...@gm...>]

> >If a "sarah smith" is married to a "kevin jones,
> >will a search for "sarah jones" succeed?
>
> It should, shouldn't it.
>
> I hesitate to comment, as I'm no longer a active user of Gramps, but
> what the heck. The software I've been using lately allows you to set a
> unique alias for an individual, which you can use any place where you
> might use an id. Very handy when you're working on some particular group
> of individuals. I spose you could do something similar with a tag,
> aliasing Sarah Smith to '-> sarah jones', or whatever. Another thing I
> can do is assign someone to a network, say 'jones family', and search on
> that. An individual can be in multiple networks. This kind of strategy
> distinguishes between what might be displayed in a report, and what you
> might need to find tomorrow.
>
> Perhaps the point should also be made that maiden (birth family) names
> are vital in research, and should always be recorded.
>
> I don't record married names as alternates. I'm lazy, I have masses of
> yet to be organised data, and anyway, I have a marriage or other event
> to point me in the right direction if need be.


It should not be necessary to record married names as alternatives, in my
opinion. (Except perhaps in cases where a Jane Jones marries a Bob Baxter
and changes her name to "Jane Jones Baxter" or "Jane Jones-Baxter", instead
of just Jane Baxter).

If I want to find someone in my database, say "Jane Jones", and I do not
know if the name I have is her married name or maiden name, I search using
the Forename using the "People" view, which I had set up to include the
"Spouse" column. This way I can see if any people called "Jane" have a
surname or a spouse "Jones".  (Or I search on the name "Jones", and see if
any of the hits have a Forename or a spouse "Jane".)

What I would prefer, however, is if the standard search form ("Filter") in
the People view included several extra fields: in addition to Name, ID,
Gender, etc., I'd like to see Spouse: this way I could put "Jane" in Name,
and "Jones" in the Spouse field if I was sure that "Jane Jones" was her
married name.

While I'm on the subject, I'd also like to see other fields in the People
View filter, e.g. "Marriage Date" in addition to Birth and Death dates.
(Sometimes I want to search for people for whom I have marriage dates, but
not birth/death dates). I'd also like to see a Place field here: I might
want to search for a "Mrs Smith" (forename unknown) associated with a
particular place: early obituary notices often say something like "Last
Tuesday, Mrs Smith, widow of the late Mr Smith of 21 Seaview Road, died in
Hastings"

Cheers,

Peter