Tagging Names that Change

[Dale]

Any suggestions as to the best way to tag changing names? This is especially a concern in older family photos of genealogical interest.

Consider Mary. At age 5 she is Mary Smith. At age 25 she is Mary Jones. At age 45 she is Mary Santorini.

In building the hierarchy and tagging, does it make sense to…

•   Always use the person’s earliest name in their birth family hierarchy to tag each photo? Downside: You don’t always know the earliest name, especially in genealogical photos, nor would you always think to search that way.

•   Only use the name current at the time of the photo from the family hierarchy current at the time of the photo? Downside: Things change. Today’s current name won’t necessarily be tomorrow’s current name.

•   Tag with all applicable names from each family hierarchy? Downside: More work (but most robust for searching).

•   Create a family name hierarchy with family name tags, a given name hierarchy with tags for given names, and then filter on the two to do a find? Downside: Less structured and more chance of not getting the search results you want.

It would be helpful if the software had a place where you could designate two tags to be identical and searching on one (Mary Smith) would also find instances of the other (Mary Jones). Does any software do that?

What has worked best in your experience?

stlsailor

[BKKPhotographer]

I think this is a good use for keyword synonyms in Lightroom.

The approach I use is to use the first name plus the first letter of the surname as the keyword in LR. Then I would add synonyms for the full name and any subsequent names. Thus for your example I would have

Mary-S with synonyms Mary, Mary Smith, Mary Jones and Mary Santorini.

You can use the synonyms in LR searches and fliters.

However this will not make it easy for you to isolate all photos of Mary between the ages of 25 and 45 when she was Mary Jones. So another approach would be a hierarchy:

Mary
>>>Mary Smith
>>>Mary Jones
>>>Mary Santorini

I hope that helps.

Ian

[Dale]

Ian,

The approach I use is to use the first name plus the first letter of the surname as the keyword in LR. Then I would add synonyms for the full name and any subsequent names.

So I understand you would tag the name applicable at the time to a photo (e.g. Mary Smith, Mary Jones) but would use Mary-S as your search criteria and it would find all of them because you've set them up as synonyms?

However this will not make it easy for you to isolate all photos of Mary between the ages of 25 and 45 when she was Mary Jones. So another approach would be a hierarchy:

I assume this is because iif you searched on any of the names set up as synonyms it would find all of them? In other words, LR does not support one-way synonyms?

The hierarchy by first name is an interesting concept. The difficulty I see with that is that it doesn't fit well into a family/work hierarchy. It would seem to have to be either/or. I'll have to think about that one a bit.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Dale

[peterkrogh]

Dale,
I would tag the person with all appropriate names. My own sensibility would have it that the keyword "Mary Smith" is appropriate whether she happens to be named Smith or Santorini when the photo was taken.

Think about it from the search perspective. Would you want results of a search of Mary Santorini to *not* show results of Mary Smith?  I can't really imagine many scenarios where that would be desirable, at least by a broad search.

Peter

[Dale]

Peter,

What you say does make sense in the long run, since it would facilitate searching, which is the primary objective. I'd guess the name of the person at the time the picture is taken, if needed, could be entered in the caption or a notes field.

Thanks.

Dale

[wvcs]

I tag my female members with the following format, (Mary (Smith) Jones). If there are more, then I use Mary (Smith-Jones) Santorini. That way she can be found with a full or partial search. Most recent people will either know her as Mary Smith or Mary Santorini.

Bill