Why can't I edit this profile to change last name at birth?

Question

Margaret Audley is obviously her married name. I can find no evidence for her maiden name. Tried to change her name at birth to Unknown but computer won't let me. Says it is not allowed. What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

Hi Dave,

I'm sorry that error message isn't clearer. It should be.

You can't edit the LNAB because you're not on the Trusted List. You don't need to be on the TL to edit Open profiles, with three exceptions: changing the Privacy Level, merging, and changing the LNAB (which is actually a merge, since our IDs are tied to LNABs; a new ID is created and the existing profile is merged into it).

Chris

Answer 2

I've beeen meeting this problem too. At the moment Wikitree cotains a number of profiles of people that didn't actually exist because the married name only is given. And it seems we can't change name at birth.

But actually that doesn't solve anything, because, if you change name at birth, you then get Mary X  formerly Y. But she wasn't Mary X. She was Mary Y who married and adopted her husband's name later.

The X formerly Y could imply a name change of another type.

Comments

Hi Martin,

What you mention here about X and Y sounds like the distinction between Current Last Name and Last Name at Birth. They do need to be edited separately.

Chris