Family Name

I heard in Denmark they are talking about replacing names with numbers ....

I should point out that the significance of this became apparent when talking to my mother-in-law, who used to send out invitations for her church.

The invitations used to be addressed to 'The Smith family' or 'The Brown family'. It became so awkward that invitations are no longer sent. She could only invite a list of individuals, not the family, which usually defeated the purpose of the invitation.

Erica. Love it! From reading through Geni, the Scandinavian tradition of using a farm name certainly has it's merits. Perhaps a modern equivalent could be devised.

I find invitations addressed to "The Smith Family" appropriate and charming, because regardless of what surname actually and currently used, it acknowledges "you are one family and all are invited.". And suppose she misses an exact name when trying to list them all? The old fashioned way is more inclusive.

I am getting fond of toponymics myself. They used them so much in my sources.

- Erica Howton, of New York

Ken, the tradition of using farmnames in Norway is not very easy for genealogists. I have a xx-great-grandfather that moved 6 times in his life, every time he changed his farmname, just because he lived on another farm with another name. It's not allways easy to track those that moved a lot.