Trouble naming this profile.

Question

I'm seeking some help with naming this profile.

John was born a month or so before his parents were married and then his father died and Mother remarried.

All the  records I've found are included in the biography but with the mixture of surnames and middle names that John has had over his life I'm not sure what should go where.

I add an edit here to emphasize that it's not just the various types of surname that is under question but what names should be entered as middle names (and if so how to distinguish over time) and what is his proper name.

Given the birth registration quoted in the biography (24/96), is Moody his middle name or part of a two word surname or an alternative surname, or an indication that there was a beaurocratic or technical glitch (Is birth record (24/66) linked to this?) in the recording of his surname in the manner that his mother wanted it to be recorded as Moody?

Comments

Let the birth document be our guide!

Do we really know that John's bio-father was the same person whom his mother married after John's birth?

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1. Shouts of errors are irrelevant, Eddie; those of us doing proper work simply take it in stride and try to educate the offender. If we have solid source documentation to support the correct LNAB, then we should enter that LNAB.

2. Bad merges and rejected good merges happen; we can easily correct such errors. We should always be vigilant in our own work and help those who are not.

Whether or not "peeps" check the bio or complete merges just because they can, those of us who strive to do proper genealogy should not allow "peep" behavior to drag us down to a lower standard.

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No need to apologise to me Eddie. I was just curious about what you thought, not seeking any confrontation. I am still on a learning curve here so I am always interested in what other folks think and why they think it. Most of my genealogy work when I started over a decade ago was the opposite way round to what Wikitree advocates, so I have to pull myself up and think hard sometimes. In my own database many of my family in the 1800s are recorded as Crackett, with Cracket as the alternative, but if I follow Wikitree guidelines then many of them would have LNAB Cracket and current (burial) name Crackett. I expect I am not the only one who has to do some rethinking occasionally.

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Good point about the bio father Lindy.

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Lindy - regarding the "biological" father query - there is no DNA evidence so that point is mute.  However, the death record names Joseph as John's father, so as accurate as any death record can be you have a strong  source for naming the Joseph whom John's mother married as John's father.

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Eddie and Lynda, 
Let me partly quote guidelines...
 

Last Name at Birth This field could also be called Proper Last Name, Surname, or Maiden Name. It is generally a family name but it could be a patronymic or whatever other standard is conventional for the person's time and place. 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.

I think we have a possibility of error and secondly more likely that the marriage of his parents while he was only a month or so old means that he never used his birth name


 

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OK. Given that last bullet point, I can see that there could be a justification for using Moody as LNAB and Henderson in alternative names, but if you do that then I hope that you will make it easy for anyone hunting for John Moody Henderson to find him.

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I have included the name "John Moody Henderson" in two locations of the biography and included a section for a Nameline (timeline for names) at the bottom of the profile

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R, my point is that the surname Moody is based on a presumption that the man John's mother married after John's birth was his bio-father - at least as accurately as we could expect that "fact" to be determined in that time period.

Suffice to say that several currently unknown events could have occurred in his mother's life between John's conception and his birth!

We have no evidence to support or disprove either possibility (bio-father; not bio-father); therefore, we should follow the source documentation, which gives John's LNAB as Henderson.

We also have no evidence that John was adopted after his mother's marriage, so that is a moot point without documentation.

Death records for an 85-year-old person are not good source documents to use to establish LNAB.

Of course, as the profile manager, you have the flexibility to keep Moody as John's LNAB or to change it to reflect the birth documentation. Our WikiTree won't collapse, whatever you decide; so take your time to ponder all the input from your fellow WikiTreers!!

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Gday Lindy,  

We are not discussing any of these fields:- 
father is non-biological 
father is uncertain 
father is confident 
father is confirmed with DNA 

The wikitree guidelines do not mention biology as being a criteria to consider for the LNAB field.  On the contrary, it specifically allows for a non-biological legal relationship in infancy to be a partial reason to alter the value to be placed in the LNAB field.

The directive I am getting from both of the dot points of the guidelines is that the deciding factor as to the last name at birth field is that if a person never used their documented birth name then an alternative one used from infancy can reasonably be considered as the value to be entered into the LNAB field.  

Thanks to the discussion on this thread, I am firming that this view point fully applies in this case.

Using Moody as the LNAB is based on it being the surname used on numerous documents throughout his life and that the surname Henderson only appears on the birth registration and even then it is connected with Moody.    

For the LNAB field, biology is not a consideration - a DNA confirmed (or disproven) father-child relationship does not influence the LNAB field of the child.  It's about name usage from infancy.

Answer 1

Since the profile says the birth was registered in Lanchester I am assuming that this person is the John Henderson with GRO Reference: 1848  M Quarter in DURHAM AND LANCHESTER  Volume 24  Page 66,

If so, then he should have LNAB Henderson. I would put Ross into alternative surnames and Moody into current last name, given the sequence of the name changes and his death as John Moody.

 

Just as an aside, I have Hendersons in that area around that time, so it might be interesting to see if there is a connection.

Comments

No Lynda,  the record you give is a different record from the one I quoted in the biography.  - note page 96 not 66.

I have not seen any proof that the two records are about the same birth although perhaps the one quoted in the biography is a correction of the one you quote.  Does the later page number order indicate that the chronology of registration order?

So given the birth registration quoted in the biography is Moody his middle name or part of a two word surname or an alternative surname, or an indication that there was a technical glitch in the recording of his surname in the manner that his mother wanted it to be recorded.

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So was the registration as Moody or Henderson?

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You can order a pdf version of the record for £6 at the moment as the GRO have a pilot ongoing. Might be worth investing in that if you have not already done so.

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Found the one you referred to. It gives his surname as Henderson and other names as John Moody. 

HENDERSON, JOHN  MOODY	-
GRO Reference: 1848  M Quarter in DURHAM AND LANCHESTER  Volume 24  Page 96

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Yes correct, - so you can see why I'm asking the question about the difficulty naming him.  

That is the only record of him using Moody as a middle name although in the 1861 census his middle name is recorded as Moodey with his surname Ross

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Lynda, John's Henderson grandparents and uncles and aunt are listed on his profile in the 1871 census entry.

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sorry - in the 1851 census entry