Enter First Middle SURNAME Correctly in Genealogy

Yes, Virginia, there is a correct way to enter the names in your genealogy database or in hard copy.

And Yes, this is marked a *MUST DO*.

Preferred Method: SURNAME, First Middle         Example:  DOE, John James

Acceptable (but not as good) Method:  Surname, First Middle     Example: Doe, John James

Why is having the SURNAME in all capital letters preferred?
Anyone else besides me hate to hear “because it’s always done that way.” Not a good reason. But adhering to a “standard practice” or “best practice” indicates consistency with expected results.

A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. In addition, a “best” practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered. Best practice is considered by some as a business buzzword, used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can use. ~ from Wikipedia, Best Practice.

Be selfish for the moment.

You are going through your data, perhaps a printed report, and you have NOT used all caps SURNAME. Remember that a report (a genealogy software generated file, usually a PDF) often prints the names as follows: John James DOE or John James Doe.

Notice how the all caps SURNAME pops out. Easy to spot. Immediately you know that DOE is a surname.

So does anyone else who looks at your report. Even people who know nothing about genealogy will quickly pick up that “last names” are all in capital letters.

BEST ‘Logical’ REASON!  What is the person has a surname that could be a first name?

Think for a minute. Do you know anyone with the last name of Scott, Henry, Allen, Duke, Hamilton, Perry, etc?

You see this name — John James Henry. So which one is the SURNAME? You assume ‘Henry’ because it is listed last. But is your assumption correct?

Now view the name as John James HENRY. Point made. Personally, I just find it easier to scan the PEOPLE list and “see” the First Name quickly because it’s the first listed that is not in all caps.

Now you can see why SURNAME in all capital is a best | standard | preferred method.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Change all surnames to all capitals.

If using Family Tree Maker, easily accomplished via Tools > Convert Names.  BUT  no setting is available that automatically puts any surname into all caps when you are typing the name.

WARNING: If you have people in your database where you only have the first name, FTM will treat that single name as a surname in the conversion. EVEN if you have that single name in the first name field. I chose to go ahead and convert. Then went through the list via PEOPLE and change the first names back to Mixed Case.

Make sure that the names showing in all caps are SURNAMEs and not given names!

If using Legacy, easily accomplished as well via Options > Customize > Data Format, then Letter Case of Surnames.   Legacy will also allow you to set the letter case of the surnames to all caps (even if you are typing in lower case) and the ability to have initial caps on the surnames, given names, etc.

I believe the reason FTM does NOT provide this option is the expectation of you to incorporate other trees into your database & having that data arrive the way it was entered in the original file. HOWEVER, there is the ability now on Ancestry.com when adding a found tree or fact, to modified the incoming entry. Do I wish FTM allowed the same options as Legacy? Absolutely.

What if I don’t wanna put all surnames in caps?

Then don’t. Use Method two. But do not use any old way to enter the name. Some in caps. Some in Mixed Case. Some in all lowercase. Next post will explain why.