a PREFIX-field would be nice ...!

Jeannette,

It would be difficult for profiles that need more then just a single value (what should be the order?) and a number of them would probably at least one date (a prince can become a king) and it would probable need a location as well (a prince in one country could be a king in another).
I think something that you could add to the timeline would probably be better.

Different people would write the same information in different ways (even in the same language), so it would be very hard to make a useful search on this kind of information if it would not be structured in some way.
Probably it would need some language dependent tables with values to choose from to make it possible to enter this kind of data in a structured way and searching it practical. Even then I don't see much use for searching this kind of field.

A template for the about me could be a useful starting point to see which kind of information should be registered and what be be a good format.
May be it would be more useful to make the about me timeline and/or region specific. That would make it possible to add titles at a certain point on the timeline and/or for a certain region. It would also make it possible to register name changes more easily (like when someone changes the name after immigration or going to Mekka)

yes, your remarks are useful, but do you see how it works now? People put titels in namefields and that makes merging even more complicated...
Do you suggest to avoid the suffix field as well?

And about the ABOUTme field: lots of people use it only for URL's while there is a special place to put them under MEDIA under documents. So it must be not to complicated to use. I think only few people use the timeline active, for its not that easy yet. Not for starters/beginnners.

In every country there is a correct order of prefixes, although you might have to consult old-fashioned etiquette books to find it.

Standard encyclopedic usage applies here, I think. Use only the highest title in the name fields. Put the rest in the biography.

There is are people with a lot of prefixes and suffixs. And some times they can use it only in one country and not in others. For example the noble titles may not be used in the USA, but need to be used in the UK.

My full name is "ing. Jeroen M.W. van Dijk MCSA" , but that is my dutch version. The english version would be "BS Jeroen M.W. van Dijk MCSA".

A lot of people worked very hard for their title or have the right to wear them. And for a lot of people make a family tree is a way to honor their family members. And then the title, the correct one are very important.

It is complicated. I think it would be best if people did not put titles in the name fields, because that makes detecting duplicates and merging them more difficult. But like Jeroen says people like to add them, but putting them in field gives a lot of complications. That is why I think that you would need a group of fields that belongs together and could be added multiple times.
I think you should have a cluster of fields with a start date, end date, region, title, indication if it should be before or after the name and the order it should have if more then one title had the same indication and starting date.
Like the name fields it should be possible to have them in multiple languages.
I think that should cover most of the problems.

To get an uniform usage it would be best if the titles and regions could be chosen from predefined values (language dependent). This would add a new complication however. How to handle missing values?
If a user is allowed to create new values for his or her own use that would help to keep values uniform on a user basis, but would not solve the overall problem.

It is a pity that Google does not have a time dependent way to find the name of a place or region. The name of a place or region changes in time (a lot of people are born in a country that does not exist any more), so it would be nice when you could specify a time period when searching for a name.

That place name dependent on timeline is something I have also been thinking about. I'm sure it can and will be achieved in some future release...

This is one reason I advocate for accepting Place names as the Google API presents them.

Donovan, I hope so too.

The old genealogical standard, developed in the 1960s and 70s was to use the name as it was at the time. The logic was that it would be easier to know where to look for the records. One problem is that it gives the illusion that people moved, when it is only that political boundaries shifted.

What the standards people failed to understand is that there is a difference between the location (map coordinates) and information about the location (its name).

Computers changed everything. If you know the location, the computer should be doing the work of identifying the correct historical name.

I've seen more and more genealogists arguing that the standard is now outdated and needs to be discarded. I ran across this article, where the author makes that point in passing:

Correct vs Incorrect
http://everymangenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/correct-vs-incorrect....

" Locations: the old genealogy standard is to use the location name as it was at the time the record was made. Go ahead and keep that standard if you wish, but any location service provided by a computer will not put the results where they actually need to go. I use the current location in the field, and the original location in the description. I also put in my research notes a timeline of when the change happened. If you have FTM, you can add events to a general timeline that you can view for your person. It already has world events and will add family events (like the birth of children), so adding one for the change of a county name could help remind you."

I do the exact same thing as author of "Correct vs Incorrect". I write the location name as it is today in the events location field in my database, and then I write the exact wording of the source in the note area of the event.

That said, no location service provider can keep up to date with all the local changes in the municipality's borders and other smaller or larger changes to local borders of some kind. It's even hard for us living in the same country to try to keep up.

Even current names may be different depending on the language. Google may help there and provide coordinates for the place even when it is entered in a different language. I do not know if Geni will store these coordinates.
It would be nice if you search in one language and would be able to find a record where the name of a place is written in a different language by using the coordinates.
It would even be nicer if the coordinates would describe an area, That way you could match a place name to more general description (a bigger area)
I seems Google may supports this. Google even seems to support translation of coordinates back into a place description.

Putting the current name in the place field would make it possible for Google to translate it into coordinates. It seems that could be used to enable searching for entries that describe a larger or smaller area and for place names that are entered in different languages.

I do not know if there is a service that would translate a historical name to the current name or that could provide coordinates for the historical name.
If would probably help if coordinates could be used for input if those where known for a historical name. Geni could use Google to translate those to the current name.

It is the same as the names we write down the name of the birth as it is in the written in the sources. The same we should do with the name of the birthplace we write down as it is written in the source.

If there there is a difference who a programma or website handles it. There is aways the note area. So use it because there are you completely free to enter any thing you like. And please, please keep your own high standards in your own local database programma. Because in time computerprogramma's and website will move to higher standards and we all know that the standard of geni.com is not as high as some of us wanted it to be.

Understand that the birth time and place is recorded as accurate as possible so that means for a computer in an internal number.

But places names changes in time. And it would be good if you know the time of birth, place of birth and the language of the viewer that the software would combine it and display the historical name and the present name in the correct language of the user. Now there are people that don't use the google service and create places to match the historical name or the name in their language.

PLEASE continue discussion about PLACE of BIRTH and DATE elsewhere, for here I prefer a discours about the PRE- and SUFFIX possibilities in a Internet-platform Geni is. Thanks a lot, Jeannette.

Voor wie nog graag iets wil leren:

Nota bene : This list is ONLY for the ENGLISH language linguists !!

Suffix : Description
—————————————
B.V.M. : Blessed Virgin Mary
CFRE : Certified Fund Raising Executive
CLU : Chartered Life Underwriter
CPA : Certified Public Accountant
C.S.C. : Congregation of Holy Cross
C.S.J. : Sisters of St. Joseph
D.C. : Doctor of Chiropractic
D.D. : Doctor of Divinity
D.D.S. : Doctor of Dental Surgery
D.M.D. : Doctor of Dental Medicine
D.O. : Doctor of Osteopathy
D.V.M. : Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
Ed.D. : Doctor of Education
Esq. : Esquire
II : The Second
III : The Third
IV : The Fourth
Inc. : Incorporated
J.D. : Juris Doctor
Jr. Junior
LL.D. : Doctor of Laws
Ltd. : Limited
M.D. : Doctor of Medicine
O.D. : Doctor of Optometry
O.S.B. : Order of St Benedict
P.C. : Past Commander, Police Constable, Post Commander
P.E. : Protestant Episcopal
Ph.D. : Doctor of Philosophy
Ret. : Retired
R.G.S. : Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd
R.N. : Registered Nurse
R.N.C. : Registered Nurse Clinician
S.H.C.J. : Society of Holy Child Jesus
S.J. : Society of Jesus
S.N.J.M. : Sisters of Holy Names of Jesus & Mary
Sr. : Senior
S.S.M.O. : Sister of Saint Mary Order
USA : United States Army
USAF : United States Air Force
USAFR : United States Air Force Reserve
USAR : United States Army Reserve
USCG : United States Coast Guard
USMC : United States Marine Corps
USMCR : United States Marine Corps Reserve
USN : United States Navy
USNR : United States Navy Reserve

Also relevant:

* http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Präfix

Jeannette,

From your list I get the impression that it would be nice to have more fields.

Something like Sr or Jr and I, II, III are a different kind of information from the others and South Africa also has a system to give some information about who came before (This seems to be information that now goes in suffix field).
There is also a difference in how you can get a certain title (like by study, or inheritance) or how you can loose it. It may be nice if there was a way to structure the information. It may also make it easier to get information from Geni to other programs by Gedcom without loosing this kind of information.

in my project-documentation elsewhere I use also the difference between PRAE-FIX and PRAE-DICAAT. De last one is ---to my 'humble knowledge :-) --- in our country NLD strickly for inheritated titels to be given for instance ONLY to the eldest SON or sometimes for All children, inclusive the females.

My father was till hiss 55th anniversary MAJOOR der GENIE, so after that date everybode had to approach him properly with the suffix: majoor der Genie b.d. B.D. stands for 'buiten dienst', in english maybe 'Out of Service'. Till the Queen or King ofcourse called him again to help defending our territory...

But he died at the age of 80 and till that time no-one was curious about what he did during his lifetime before his grandchildren were born.

I do agree with you that it would be nice to have a possibility to add this kind of information, but I'm afraid that just adding a prefix field will not solve most of the problems.

So I hope that when Geni makes changes they implement a solution that addresses most problems. In my opinion that should be more than just add a prefix field.

When they now just add the field and later make a better solution (like they did with language support for the name fields) a lot of people do not want to correct all the information that have already entered when the new possibilities where not yet available.

Voor de Nederlandse kijkers onder ons nog een project-verwijzing die wat schemer in de duisternis kan werpen...
* http://www.geni.com/projects/Aan-schrijf-spreek-titels-in-het-Neder...