But I have many ‘females’ in my database that I do not know if they are using there family surname or married surname, ie Jane Smith died blah blah blah, from such and such town.
How do other people cope as to whether its a family surname or married surname.
I have been doing this for over 30 years and I still get stumped. I am trying to purge these records to reduce database size, as I do not believe these records are relevant, unless there is any other info attached that might be useful.
@gray --Tom is right that there are many good discussion on here BUT as to your question–there must have been a reason you add JANE SMITH in the first place UNLESS you just downloaded family info files from Ancestry or Familysearch–a quick check for additional info on Ancestry or family search MIGHT tell you how she is connected–a 2nd wife of your g-grandfather who helped raise his kids or a half sibling of your 2nd g-grandfather who never married-- when in doubt you can always use ?? or unknown ( sister of Mark Harmon) or leave the last name blank–then put a general note that says she was listed as a sister in Mark Harmon’s obit
In my view it is wrong to have the primary name (and/or only) name as Married name. I add the Birth/Maiden name as primary. I use an SQL script to manually add married names. So this their multiple (sometimes more than 4 or 5) married name so on reports if/when needed. Often other people are unaware of previous or subsequent marriages. I do not use characters such as ____ or ??? for unknown surnames. I might use “Unknown Wife” if both are unknown.What you decide is what you decide – its your tree. The biggest challenge is when you are viewing other peoples trees.