Proposal to amend Wikitree policy to permit the use of numbers and punctuation marks, namely commas in the “Current Last Name” and “Other Last Name” fields.
As part of the preparation rolling out the new Scotland project, I am looking after Scottish clans and Nobility because these are my areas of expertise. I know in different parts of the world there are variations in the way names are both used and written. Even within the English speaking world there are huge variations and even here in the United Kingdom, major differences between England and Scotland. This is because most people don’t realise there is a difference between “England” and “Great Britain” or the “United Kingdom”. Scotland has in fact always kept an entirely separate legal system from England.
In Scotland, it is not as simple as someone having a Christian name (first name) and Surname (Last name at birth). There are many thousands of people who are members of noble families who will have one LNAB and then during their lifetime a range of different Surnames (current or other last names) which have nothing to do with marriage or divorce. Under Scots law, someone who is a member of a baronial family has the last name e.g. “Mackenzie of Scatwell”. His or her last name is neither Mackenzie nor Scatwell, it is Mackenzie of Scatwell. Similarly a Peer can change his name many times during his life.
Our late Prime Minister, Sir Alex Douglas Home had the following names at different times during his life!
Hon. Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home (at birth)
Hon. Alexander Frederick, Lord Dunglass (when his grandfather died)
The Rt. Hon. Alexander Frederick, 14th Earl of Home (when his father died)
The Rt. Hon. Sir Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home (when he resigned his Earldom in order to become the British Prime Minister)
The Rt. Hon. Alexander Frederick, The Lord Home of the Hirsel (when he ceased to be a member of our House of Commons and went to the House of Lords as a Life Peer. This lasted until his death. He could not simply take back his previous title 14th Earl of Home but when he died his son became the 15th Earl of Home)
His wife Elizabeth once said to me that their postman at the Hirsel (the name of the family estate in Scotland) had a hard job because she had had 6 different surnames in her lifetime but she had only ever been married to one man!
Within Wikitree, we have a number of members who are affected by the problem of how their current last name is displayed simply because as members of noble families, they do not have a “simple” last name.
Since I joined Wikitree in July 2017, I have had to merge many thousands of duplicate profiles for Scots. A great many of them were members of the Scottish Nobility and indeed ancestors or distant cousins of my own. The main reason these duplicate profiles have been created is that when a hint is given during the creation of a profile, there is nothing to point to the existence of one or more profiles for the person in question because the current Wikitree system does not permit complex current last names, particularly excluding numbers and punctuation marks.
It would greatly enhance the appearance of Scottish profiles and accurately display their names if we can amend the current last name field. If you look at the following profiles, you can see examples I have created which show up in searches. I did this to enable members of the Wikitree community to understand how it would work. I know that other projects depart from the standard rule. Currently the South Africa project policy is for all Christian names to appear in the first name field and to ignore the middle name field. The Euro Aristo project of which I am an active member, places titles in the nickname field but they do not show up in a search or among the profile prompts when creating a new profile which might already exist.
Examples of Profile Names for Scottish Nobles:
Bethune-14: Cardinal David Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews
His LNAB was Bethune but he was known as Beaton. Cardinal is an appropriate prefix and his title was “Archbishop of St Andrews”. So his profile should be
Prefix: Cardinal
First Name: David
LNAB: Bethune
Current Last Name: Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews
Mackenzie-905: Roderick Mackenzie, 1st Laird of Redcastle
His LNAB was Mackenzie. He became the 1st in the line of Mackenzies to own Redcastle making his title 1st Laird of Redcastle. Scottish Barons were landowners, not peers. So his profile should be
First Name: Roderick
LNAB: Mackenzie
Current Last Name: Mackenzie, Laird of Redcastle
In his biography it would be explained that he was the 1st Laird of Redcastle on being granted the Barony.
Mackenzie-1261: Kenneth Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Seaforth (Irish creation)
First Name: Kenneth
LNAB: Mackenzie
Current Last Name: Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth
As numbers and symbols cannot be inserted in the Current Last Name Field, it should be made clear in his biography that he was created Earl of Seaforth as an Irish Peerage in order not to be confused with the much earlier Earldom of Seaforth granted to his ancestors as a Scottish Peerage.
Moravia-10: William Sutherland, 3rd Earl of Sutherland
First Name: William
LNAB: Moravia
Current Last Name: Sutherland, Earl of Sutherland
At the time of his birth, William’s family was known as “De Moravia” and under Wikitree project rules the LNAB should ignore the “De”. During his lifetime he and his brother more commonly used and were referred to by the surname “Sutherland”. In his biography it should be made clear that he adopted the surname Sutherland and that on the death of his father he became the 3rd Earl of Sutherland.
Sutherland-3463: Margaret Sutherland of Kinminitie
First Name: Margaret
LNAB: Sutherland
Current Last Name: Sutherland, Lady Artamford
It will be seen from her profile that Margaret became the wife of James Irvine, the 3rd Laird of Artamford. However on marriage she did not become known as Margaret Irvine, the modern practice. As her husband was the Laird of Artamford, she became known as “Lady Artamford”. Indeed in Court of Session court papers she was referred to as “Margaret Sutherland, Lady Artamford”.
There are some profiles where there are as many as 5 or 6 profile managers because so many duplicate profiles have been unnecessarily created and then merged. If you search for these individuals I have mentioned above, they can easily be identified in a name search. Over the past few days I have been merging duplicate profiles for members of the same branch of the Sinclair family, part of the noble house of Dunbeath where there were duplicates across at least 5 consecutive generations. In addition mothers were shown as wives of their sons because the duplication had caused complete confusion. This is a very common occurrence with Scottish profiles sadly.
I have taken quite some time to create this proposed naming protocol for profiles falling within the Scotland project and ahead of this wider G-2-G discussion, have consulted leading Scottish members of Wikitree and colleagues who are widely respected genealogists and historians in Scotland, including one colleague with close connections to the Court of the Lord Lyon which is the legal authority in Scotland in all matters of genealogy and heraldry. You will realise this is a very technical area of Scots Law and there are only a small number of us who understand how these things work and in some cases provide professional services for it as well as amateur ones like here on Wikitree.
From a technical point of view, I think it would require an amendment to the coding system which would not flag up the presence of punctuation marks like commas and if possible, numbers, as “errors” in the Wikitree system in either the “current last name” or “other last name” fields.
I hope from my explanation above you can all see the merits in my proposal and consider whether it will be technically possible to make the change to the parameters for the “Current Last Name” and “Other Last Name” fields.
