MY HUNGARIAN QUANDARY

I’m confused by the question, Roy. Geni has multi lingual name fields and endless AKA possibilities.

I am not far in extending my Jewish tree back in time, but even my small tree has Russian, Polish, Galician German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, English & nicknames. My great grandfather was born in Belarus, moved to Odessa, then America, then changed his name. I’ve never seen a document with his name in Cyrillic, does that mean I don’t enter his name? I don’t have a “legal” name change document either, but I know he did, when and why; do I not have his children as they were known most of their lives? Do we not use letters, postcards, memoirs, photos, newspaper articles, organization rosters, temple membership, oral interviews, and other “ephemera” in genealogy?

Erika Thank you for your interest.
The quandary has, as expected, additional facets.

There are many like myself who have NO CLOSE FAMILY TIES to the thousands of profiles that we manage, and our only guidance to the informative profiles we create for the wider Geni membership, is archival documentation. As you may have gathered, my concern / quandary is addressed more to the multi contributors than those like yourself whose prime source for the more compact tree is close family knowledge.

As you say, for those that contribute a multitude of entries on Geni, there are many multi-lingual options, but everyone opts to use the "English as default" setting. I do so because it helps reverse the name order that is used in Hungary, which you may have experienced, complicates many searches from Geni's worldwide membership. What I cannot explain is why those who opt to use an unproven Germanic name also in the English as Default setting rather than the Germanic section that is available. Perhaps you should ask them?

As explained, this is primarily addressed to those multi contributors to the Hungarian field who also opt to use English as Default setting. I am of the opinion that as we are not a close relative of the person we are recording, their proven Hungarian name over-rides an unsupported one which I presume can only be a speculative interpretation of archival documentation. Speculative names belong in the 'Also Known As' field and not the other way round. In that way a Geni print off of the family tree shows a proven rather than a speculative ancestry.

To appease all parties, particularly those more closely related however, an acceptable compromise would be to give both names equal parity so that they appear alongside each other, but it is grossly incorrect to relegate any proven name that would facilitate further research to the AKA field where it fails to be reproduced in a Geni print off of an individual's family tree.

Regards Roy

Well, my analogy on your further point is more as a Geni volunteer curator for close to 10 years; I’m one of the “first 15” (no, we don’t have a club).

Naming conventions in a multi lingual and multi historic area are subtle; not always obvious; and subject to change and evolution and improvement. The “closer in” the profile to family, the more the immediate family desires & needs matter. The more historic, the more the scholarship matters.

I work in areas where historians have normalized name spellings from the original record. As Geni evolves its technology, and as members contribute, so will we be more able to reflect these accurately.

Printing off Geni profiles frankly is not a priority for me in working on names. That sounds like a technology fix or option rather than a data entry directive.