Thread: Family names

What is the easiest way to keep a record of common family names
eg:
John Arthur
his son also called John Arthur
etc etc
Just use their year of birth?

The use of familial names can be a pain especially if somene has a dozen children and some of them do likewise.
The only thing I use to get over this is add the year of birth to the name eg John Smith (b1920).
This works for me while doing research to stop you accidentally adding information to the wrong person.
With computer records the date would be best as a middle name, else your surname would change. i.e John b1920 Smith
When you have finished altering the records you can delete the 'date' name

The use of junior, senior or I,II,III,IV etc does not help with other branches, but might solve your problem if it is just one line?

I knew 3 generations of William McDonalds who were known as William, Bill and Billy that worked in gatherings but is no good for genealogy!

Start with 0 at bottom of Tree, next generations back will be 01, 02, 03, etc.

Generations below 0 can go 00, 000, etc, ad infinitum