Believe me, I had enough trouble when I first met some people back in the 70's who were using hyphenated names. I mean, you got married, the woman took the husband's family name, the family name was passed down to the children and all was right with the world. This isn't necessarily a rant about various cultures and their naming conventions. As a matter of fact, I respect naming conventions....when they are conventions! Conventions such as a Swedish son taking the name of his father with the word "...son" appended: Anderson, Erikson, etc. I can understand that. Or the Spanish child with the father's surname first then the mother's surname hyphenated: Gonzalas Y Lupez. No problems!
Without getting into anyone's personal details, I'm amazed at the fact that there are hundreds and more than likely thousands of families that use whatever is convenient or sounds cool. My wife works in a field where she has a great deal of contact with kids in the 1st to 4th grades. She tells me many stories about kids this age who don't yet know their own names. Or they register for the programs under one name but the parents insist that the child is called by another name. I'm not talking about calling "Thomas" "Tom". It's more like calling "Jeremy" "Louis"! This is not a case of using the middle name rather than the given name. These "Names of Convenience" are nowhere to be found on any documentation at all! Then there are the cases where a child is given an unpronounceable name with symbols integrated within the spelling! I'm not kidding! Using the "Thomas" example, she might see "Tom#as". Or "Anna-marble" I'm not sure how the "Thomas" name would be pronounced (I could ask my wife before I post this) but I know that the second one is "Anna Dash Marble". Anna Dash Marble?? Who??? (See the link below on creating fantasy names...I believe there are thousands of parents who are already there!)
And it doesn't stop there. There are families that seem to change their family names on a whim. That alone will cause more genealogical brick walls than you can count. But it will bring a fresh new meaning to the mantra "Speeling Duzn't Cownt"!
I'm glad I'm researching 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th century people in the 21st century. I pity the genealogists of the 22nd century! Break out the DNA tests...
Now if there's any reason for this generation to put together their own family histories, this might be it. If we can today put together solid family trees with proper citations and proof arguments, then perhaps the genealogists of the future will only have to deal with a generation or two. They may only have to work back to this generation, when genealogy and family research was easy!
- Landing Page naming conventions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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