What's the best way to standardize surname of family members of James Guile-262 when also spelled Gild, Gile, Guild?

Question

Looking at the family of "James Guile-262 aka Gile, Gild, Guild" the surname is spelled one of 4 ways even among the profiles of the children and the siblings of James. Even the sources have different spellings. This has resulted in confusion and duplicate profiles. Is there a good way to standardize the surnames when there are so many people involved?  The most common spelling in the source, The Massachusetts Vital Records Project, is Gile, followed by Gild.  Is it a good idea to add all four surnames to each family member as has been done with James Guile-262? Amusing that James' surname is Guile but his wife's married name is Gile.  Just looked again at the MA Vital Records Project and see that at birth the children were Gild but when they married most are listed as Gile. However, on their WikiTree profiles, some have LNAB as Gile.  Can't find how to change a LNAB or even if we should.  

Comments

You can only change the LNAB if you are the profile manager. If you have reason to believe the LNAB has been entered incorrectly, you should message the PM with your reasons and the sources you have that indicate the LNAB is incorrect, and politely ask if they would consider changing it.

Answer 1

You don't try to standardize. Wikitree policy is to use their conventions not ours. Last name at birth is exactly that- what's on the actual birth record. There are some exceptions. Here's the help page.

In the case of James generation the surnames are spelled Gild on the birth records. This may change for the generation up and down.

The liberal use of the other name fields should prevent creation of duplicates with other spellings. I find more often its estimated birth dates hat are more than a couple years apart or other causes that create dups.

Answer 2

I would follow the names as entered by Charles Burleigh in his book online as The genealogy and history of the Guild, Guile and Gile family, taking into account documented name changes during a life time.