Naming Conventions- Slaves without last names (USA)

prior statements

Gaby the slave of James Burwell (with slave of James Burwell)
as the last name

the slave of James Burwell with "the slave of James Burwell " as the suffix may be more in keeping with other naming conventions

First problem "Sometimes they are given or sold and have a new master. Which master would be stated in the title in that case?'

Ready for any input.

Note, this is for Slaves that never had a last name

In the case of Gaby, his name is sometimes listed as Gaby/Burwell. This might be what he used as his last name, but I'm not sure because he was the slave of James Burwell.
Aggy, slave of Elizabeth Rickman
Aggy is an example of a family that was split up and given to others within the family and therefore changed ownership....

Comments
- difficult to use the suffix for more than short initials
- if more information becomes available (the slave of Randolph is sold to Harrison, therefore the name changes) the previous name can be moved to AKA / overview, building a history
- would it make sense to use the middle name field for "slave of Peyton" so "Gaby" is easily found in "first name" and "Randolph" in "last name" searches and sorts?

In Suriname you could use the name of the plantage, see f.i.:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katwijk_(Suriname)

and then add in de middlename something like:
born in Plantage Katwijk - Suriname.

Is that a suggestion, or do I read the question wrong?
groeten van Jeannette from Holland, Europe.

No, you don't read the question wrong, jMu, and having the plantation information is a good suggestion: Peyton Randolph and his family had several plantations (I think) so it could be a nice way to refine it. I put topographic information in "display name" though.

There were many slaves, in Williamsburg, VA as an example, who were not plantation slaves. They lived in town. They were slaves of shop owners and tavern keepers.

Where they worked, if known, be it on a plantation or in a tavern, could be included in their About Me sections.

I think putting past master name in the AKA is a good idea. Can you put more than one there in the case of three or more masters?

The AKA field is just a searchable text string so the constraint is the character limit of I think 255. So it could look like

FN: Gaby
MN: slave of Peyton
LN: Randolph
Suffix: of Westover
Birth surname: blank
AKA: Harrison; Bland; Byrd

If someone is looking for Gaby I think they'd look under Randolph first so that would be the most "important" field for search.

The Also Known As field is by the way meant to be used for full names, - which also makes sense since it also goes into the search index.

EH, you can add more to the suffix field when editing from the profile than the initial inputting field which only allows a few initials

So Erica Howton you can put several names in the AKA field if you put semi colons between them and it will look for a match for each one?

The search function ignores all punctuation for the AKA field so will return all marches. Separating with punctuation (semi colon) makes it easier and neater to read.

You separate the AKA names with a comma, not semicolon

Terry I really don't like using suffix for anything other than a name field or something simple that would appear on a tombstone. The reason for name fields is to match records and source them. In the US suffixes of l, ll, lll and Sr./Jr. are legal documents, I'm sure it's similar in Canada, UK, Australia and NZ.

That's what it says in Geni, correct. However it looks neater and is more grammatically correct English to use semi colons, and it matches the semi colon use in profile view.

Stop confusing the users.
Semicolon does not work and is not used in the display of the AKA field either.

We're getting off topic now, I think? Comma and semi colon entry return the same display, at least to me.

The real question is

"how do we best use the currently available fields to be searchable, display well, and with respect."

I'm sticking with my basic rule: If it's not wrong, don't change it. Commas work. Semi-colons work. If I add a name, I use whatever punctuation is there already.

I tested with semicolons, it does not work. The whole field is treated as one name.

So, looking at what I see so far, I see

Use the Name of the owner

in this case "Gaby Burwell" suffix is slave so

"Gaby Burwell, Slave"

If the slave changes ownwers then the old name becomes an AKA, and takes on the owners last name

the words "the slave of" do not appear

any further information that may be helpfull would be in the about

Does that seem fair?

I must be doing the wrong kind of testing, Bjorn. I'll be happy to change. Show me how to replicate your results so I can see how it works.

Note on semi colons.. after input it , look under "nicknames"
in the main profile using a simi colon will give you one string.

Then try using a comma... you will see that each AKA is inclosed by " "
and that makes each AKA searchable

Exactly.

I get the enclosed " " with semi colons. But please, lets clarify that off line with Geni tech, OK?

Marv I strongly disagree with slave in suffix. Suffix is part of a legal name. To me it's either the middle name field or display name.

Also for iPad and iPhone users suffix is extremely difficult to work with, and grammatically makes no sense. The way Linda has it displaying make perfect sense.

The word "slave" is a legal status/title.. In ledal documents for a run away You will find the words "The slave, Elizabeth" or "Elizibeth. a run awy slave"

Nothing against Ipods or Iphones...but it seems the software needs an update or something. Why should I limit myself to something because an Ipod doesn't like it, This is the same thing as the fact that Geni and IE have problems sometimes. I could swiych to Chrome, but isn't it better that it's fixed for all users instead of forcing me to use software that I don't like?

Marv then I just won't enter the slaves (who were probably freed) I know about. If I can't do the data entry with my setup than someone else will have to do it. I also find it odd looking to read.