What's the appropriate way to write down names with De in them, when putting them on an online family tree?
I’m making an online family tree on Ancestry.com. As I’m getting farther down my family’s lineage, I’m beginning to notice names with a De or de in them such as William de Craunacre. When making that persons individual profile, it asks you for their first and last names. I don’t know how I should be putting this de in the name. Should I just completely leave it out? I know de means of. Thanks in advance.
Tagged with: ancestry com • family tree • last names • lineage • thanks in advance
Filed under: Online Resources
If there is an "alternate name" field - there is in Roots Magic, the program I use - flip a coin to decide which way to go, do it consistently and fill in the alternate name for everyone.
That is, William de Craunacre is probably recorded as
William /de Craunacre
William /deCraunacre
William /De Craunacre
William /DeCraunacre
William de /Craunacre
where "/" marks the start of the surname; in that last example, his middle name would be "de".
William /de Craunacre looks best to me, with the surname "de Craunacre", but your tastes may vary. It is more important that you HAVE a consistent standard than which one you use. Thus if you decide to use "de Surname", anyone coming across your data will have no problem, once they see what your standard is, finding John de Cruz, Ted de Pack, Paul de Montain, etc. etc.
Don’t forget to put plain "Craunacre" in the alternate name. That way, when you upload your data to different places, people using the site search engine will be able to find it, since the surname engines look at the alternate names too. (And, finding people to collaborate with is one of the main reasons we upload our data.)
We have the same problem with people named "Saint ——", and half the time I look for a "Mc—-" in Ancestry’s census images I find them with a space after the "Mc".
You put De in the surname part. Leaving it out could make it a whole new name.
The appropriate and correct way to enter a name with "de" would be to include it just as you typed it in your question as it is part of the persons correct names. IF you choose to use an alternative (as some genealogical programs have) then you would not include the "de"
The reason is that there may be another William Crauacre from the same era.