What is the correct LNAB for Boughton pending Merge?

Question

What would you use for the correct Last Name at Birth for this profile and the pending Merge?

Answer 1

Since the Barbour Collection lumps all the various spellings under one heading (arggh) without making a trip to wherever to check the originals we don't know what was the spelling at birth. With marriages you can go to the other person and they give the correct spelling. So I looked up his mother Abigail Marvin's marriage to his father. You're going to hate this .. It's spelled Bowton.

His probate documents spell it Bouton, evidently a preponderance of records spell it Bouton. Jacobus spells it Bouton.

The ancients records of Norwalk. 1st two references spell it Bowton, but that's probably the 1st John. References starting about 1671 spell it Bouton.

It's not spelled Boughton anywhere that I found, that must have been a later spelling by future family members.

Comments

Thank you Anne and Robin, your comments are always appreciated and worth reading.  Bouton is shall be..

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It appears that I'm a bit late in joining this discussion.  However, I have additional information to share that might help clear this up.  My great-grandmother was Anna Fonda (Boughton) Teall, 7th direct descendent of the John Bouton of this profile.  No one seems to know for sure when the name Bouton became Boughton, but family records show the change being made soon after John Bouton (5th generation) relocated his family from Connecticut to Albany County in New York's Hudson Valley.  As far as I can tell, it was at this time that John's 6th generation son was given the last name Boughton with the "gh" added.  (Who knows.  Perhaps it was relocating to this heavily Dutch community along the Hudson that motivated them to change the family name.)  I have letters from the late 1800's that were mailed from and addressed to "Boughtons" living in towns in that area like Cohoes, Watervliet, Colonie, and Rhinebeck.  Comments?

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Since family members have similar spelling how do you decide who to change? Do we change all the children too? Curious how this should work?

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Hi Elizabeth,

Great Question!

We try and use the Last Name at Birth (LNAB) for each profile as it was used at the time of birth.  We try to look for sources that indicate what the last name was at the time of birth.  If we have a good source, great, go with that.

Sometimes it is just a guess but, after a discussion, an agreement is made on what to use.

If it is demonstrated that a child used a different LNAB, then we use that alternate spelling for that profile.  Often we find that they used several different spellings over time.  A discussion is encouraged to determine what to use for the LNAB, we then include the alternate spellings in the Other Last Names field.  

Part of the reason for this is Genealogical, but part of it is for WikiTree functionality. We do want to have all the surnames used, listed in the Other Last Names field because this helps with searches for Duplicate profiles.

Once a LNAB is determined.  We want to merge all WikiTree duplicates into that WikiTree ID.  The reason for this is that the old profiles using alternate WikiTree ID's still exist even though they have been merged.  Instead of disappearing, they just get redirected to the chosen WikiTree ID.  So if Smith-3  was Merged into Smyth-10, then anywhere Smith-3 was used, a click on that ID will send you to Smyth-10.  Smith-3 still exists, it just gets redirected to Smyth-10.

If we catch it early, then all duplicates just get redirected to the Chosen WikiTree ID (LNAB).  But when mistakes are made and multiple merged profiles get redirected to a final WikiTree ID, then the computer servers have to route through all the links.

So in this case,  we may have Bowton being pointed to Boughton being pointed to Bouton being pointed to Boughton being pointed to a new Bouton.  That is a lot of work for the Servers when there are multiple (thousands) of merged profiles throughout WikiTree.  Ideally, if caught early,  Bowton would be pointed to Bouton.  Boughton would be pointed to Bouton and we would not have had to create another Bouton to repoint Boughton back to the new Bouton.

This is why we encourage good sources and open discussion to get everyone in agreement on the correct LNAB before a merge is completed.

When the profile is historic or has been demonstrated to be a key or gateway ancestor for many and we can include it in a project, then we often Project Protect the Profile,  PPP, such as this one.  This ideally keeps the LNAB protected from being merged away.  

PPP merges should definitely be discussed, especially if the PPP LNAB is the one that needs to be changed.

Mistakes happen however and we correct and move on.

Answer 2

Yahoo!   You found a profile with the correct spelling!!!!!  Actually, this is one where there is a real mess, because, his father was Bowton in the records that have been found and people are confused between he and his father Bowton.

Comments

Opps...the merge was completed in the wrong direction.  Shall we create a new profile and reset the Merge?

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Katherine created Bouton-176 and remerged.