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Archiver > TMG > 2000-01 > 0946892403


From: Tony Hall <>
Subject: Re: TMG-L: Source Entry - married or maiden surname?
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2000 09:40:03 +0000


On Sun, 2 Jan 2000 13:22:40, Hugh Wilding <> wrote

>Mills is good on women - here's her example of a primary citation for a
>letter she holds:
>
>Letter from Maude (King) Hawkins (Mrs. R. O. Hawkins: Route 2; Cedar Vale,
>KS 67024) to Elizabeth Shown Mills, 16 April 1972; held in 1996 by Mills
>(1732 Ridgedale Drive; Tuscaloosa, AL 35406). The late Mrs. Hawkins was
>granddaughter to the couple she discusses.

[snip similar for interview]

Thanks for those examples, Hugh. They raise some important
considerations for me. Firstly, there's your point:

>Tell me, Tony, are you more comfortable with "Merry Moe (née Miller)" or
>"Merry (Miller) Moe"? (There's some wonderful alliteration here <g>!) I
>know that personally it's the first for me because that's the way I've bin
>brung up...

The married name in parentheses may be a standard for some, but I don't
think that many of my UK relatives would be familiar with it. Yes, I'll
stick with the first, too.

Secondly, there's the use of Mrs with the *husband's* name. I suspect
there's some etiquette involved with this! Can anyone explain it?
(Should I be ducking?!) I certainly see both husband's and wife's name
preceded by Mrs in common use here in the UK these days. But clarity is
what's important in citations - so is it advisable to include the
husband's name in this way in citations? It certainly adds
information...

Thirdly, there's the address. Some of my relatives are sensitive about
their current address being included in reports that I circulate, so I
omit all of them, even from source citations. Each address is included
in my dataset as an Address tag, but a report produces e.g. "1998
address held by the author".

So if I were to modify my present citation "standard" to include the
husband's name but still not the address, I would end up with

"Merry Moe (née Miller) (Mrs Montgomery Moe) ...".

Hmmm, I think that needs some further work.

Umm, Jeff, I hope no-one tries to build your family tree from these
emails ;-)

--
Tony Hall
Gloucestershire, England
<>
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