# Is there a method or setting to sort people by surname and birth date?

**URL:** <https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/is-there-a-method-or-setting-to-sort-people-by-surname-and-birth-date/16180>\
**Category:** RootsMagic\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [September 2, 2026, 5:03pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/is-there-a-method-or-setting-to-sort-people-by-surname-and-birth-date/16180 "2026-09-02T17:03:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jack4653](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Jack4653](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/Jack4653)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2026, 5:03pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/is-there-a-method-or-setting-to-sort-people-by-surname-and-birth-date/16180/1 "2026-09-02T17:03:46Z")

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In looking thro’ my list of people listed under Surname, I find the birth date sort order is controlled by their Christian names. In order to find an ancestor who fits specific Birth or Death dates I have to slowly hunt down looking for any matching Birth or Death dates. Is there a way to sort by Birth or Death year?

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**Author:** ![kevync1985](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3be4f8/32.png) [@kevync1985](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/kevync1985)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/is-there-a-method-or-setting-to-sort-people-by-surname-and-birth-date/16180/2 "2026-09-02T17:39:43Z")

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> [@Jack4653](#):
>
> Is there a way to sort by Birth or Death year?

not sure which view you are asking about .  
The people view can sort by basically any displayed col.  
Click once to sort Ascending or twice for descending

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/rootsmagic/original/2X/e/ed5beb54a371a38359e84127ade4f7d504de99a1.png)

default is the name starting with surname – you can also add group filters

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**Author:** ![MadDog](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/maddog/32/313_2.png) [@MadDog](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/MadDog)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2026, 5:42pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/is-there-a-method-or-setting-to-sort-people-by-surname-and-birth-date/16180/3 "2026-09-02T17:42:59Z")

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Each Column (Name, Birth, etc) sort independently of the others so you can not sort by Name and within that sort by Birth.

You may want to use Search to find exactly who you want.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jack4653](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Jack4653](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/Jack4653)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/is-there-a-method-or-setting-to-sort-people-by-surname-and-birth-date/16180/4 "2026-09-02T20:08:17Z")

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Thank you kevync1985… thats what I needed !