I have been using RM for many years, but one thing is not clear to me and I couldn’t find a topic about it. Could you please let me know how you have solved the issue below for yourself?
In Holland surnames became common around 1650-1700. Before that, patronymic names were used.
Using the patronymic name in the surname, gives a mess in the overviews. Using the patronymic name in the Nickname box, leaves a lot of blanks in the overviews.
What is the best way to deal with this in RM?
For example, the son of Jan (John) was given a first name Willem (William) and received the patronymic name Jansen (Johnson), so he was called Willem Jansen. Then Willem’s son was given the name Karel (Charles) and received the patronymic name Willemsen (Williamson), so Karel Willemsen.
My wife has a Swedish line that I have researched extensively and they had the same system until somewhere in the 1880s; so father’s Christian name plus ‘son’ for a son and ‘dotter’ for a daughter. That’s why there were/are so many Anderssons and Svenssons, not to mention Andersdotters and Svensdotters.
I have always used the Surname field as all the contemporary documents show it as a surname, the more awkward bit comes when they start to adopt more traditional (to us) surnames; I tend to add the ‘new’ and ongoing surname as an ‘also known as’ to keep the birth name as first recorded.
And then, of course, there are the Russian patronymic & surname complexities … which aren’t the same as the Nordic ones. (tl;dr patronymics also based on father’s first name but act like a quasi-middle name, the surname suffix varies depending on the person’s gender)
Like the advice above, for my Dutch ancestors I enter the “primary” given name and surname exactly as it appears on the first record I find for the person which is usually a birth registration or a baptism record. Thereafter I enter each variation of the name as an “alternate name,” enter the date, source and image of the relevant record. This may occur numerous times in connection with the same person but provides accurate information of the name and any subsequent name variations.
(tl;dr patronymics also based on father’s first name but act like a quasi-middle name, the surname suffix varies depending on the person’s gender)