For an adopted person, should the adopted name be used for the profile, or the birth name?

Question

My mother (now deceased) was adopted and didn't know who her birth parents were. So I set up her profile using her adopted name of Dorothy Jessop. I have now determined who her bio parents were through DNA testing. I know that her unmarried bio mother's last name was Jones. My mother was told that her birth name was Doreen Mayola Jones, but I've not found any evidence to confirm her first/middle names other than what she told my sister. Should I change her name on her profile to Doreen Mayola Jones? Obviously no one knew her by that name for her entire life. And, her profile ID reflects the name "Jessop", not "Jones".

Thank you for any advice.

Comments

If you can't confirm your mother's presumed birth name via any contemporary, authoritative documentation, you should not change her name on her profile (my opinion, at least).

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I think you are correct. I also just found this when I went to edit my mother's last name:

"It is usually the formal name as it appears in official documents at the time of birth. However, it may not be exactly what appears in a birth record if:

• There was a spelling mistake or error in the document, or if the family name was more commonly spelled in a different way at the time of the birth (see the spelling conventions section above).
• The person was adopted as an infant and they never used their birth name. "

So, I'll keep her adopted name on her profile. 

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But then when someone is looking for "Jones" she won't be found because she is"Reid"  which does not match her dna  profile???

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Love this thread. Good to see this kind of interest. I agree with you, Nancy. Adopted by my father's parents, so LNAB never changed. Good people. I lucked out there. All gone now so it really only matters to ME. Seems to be resolving a lot here; adopting orphan families, connecting them to other families,  fixing "Dragnet Profiles", whatever I can do. Never yet found any birth record, but I do exist, none the less.

Answer 1

Adoption Template for anyone adopted.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:Adopted_Child

Here is an example

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Plaisted-208

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Adoptions_and_multiple_parents

Comments

Yes, thanks. I had already added the adopted child template in the bio section.

But my question about the adopted person's own names, and whether the profile name should be changed and what this would mean for the Wiki-profile ID.

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Any change to the current LNAB will change the WikiTree ID for the profiled individual since the WikiTree ID is based on the LNAB.

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Thank you.

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You are welcome, Nancy!

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Previous comment was intended to go HERE. Not sure how to move it so I'll just do this.

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I'm glad this question was asked because I have been wondering about it, too. My 2nd great-grandmother Maggie Robinson(?) was allegedly adopted.

But, even closer to home than the 2nd great-grandma, how should those of us who were not formally adopted handle it?  People like me, who were victims of misattributed parentage and snuck in on the mother's husband as his own?

I have my bio father attached to me in the tree here, but my birth name was Gunter (my mother's husband/my daddy).  McDaniel is my DNA verified biological maiden name and he was never married to my mother.

Is there anything that I should do differently on my profile? I do have a bit about the discrepancy in the Biography section.

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If you want to recognize the man who raised you, the adoption template will do this.  There does not have to be an legal adoption to refer to. This will allow a link to him from your profile..

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Thank you, Kevin!

Could you (or anyone) please look and see if I did it correctly? My biological father is still living. My daddy and mother are both deceased.

Thanks again.