A4 Family lines and surnames

The chapter describes how the app builds family lines from the tree and how it handles surnames. This covers the birth surname, the married surname, feminine forms and joined spellings of one name. Describes the Strom app 3.21.2. Changes from a later version carry its number. How names get into the tree from GEDCOM is described in A2.

A4.1 A family line and its founder

A family line is the male line from the earliest known bearer of the name. The app computes it from the tree's data only and stores only manual corrections, so the same tree always gives the same family lines. A family line is set by its founder, not by the surname. One surname can thus have several unconnected family lines, and one family line can have several spellings of the name.

Each person has one family line by birth. The app finds it through the "parent in the line":

• Limits:
  • Without a usable surname are a placeholder person, a person without a surname and a woman recorded under her husband's surname, if she has no recorded father. Such a person never splits or starts a family line.
  • A step-parent and a foster parent do not pass the family line on. An adoptive parent passes it on when no other father is recorded.
  • A family line arises only where there is at least one real person with a surname. The founder is the person at the top of the line if that person is real and has a surname. Otherwise it is the oldest bearer of the name in the highest generation that has one.
  • A different spelling of the surname in the line does not split the family line. It shows as an unconfirmed form of the family line, see A4.7.
  • "Earliest known" does not mean proven. The evidence of a person is set by R3.8 and has no effect on the family line.
  • A daughter stays a member of her father's family line. A wife who married into the family line is shown in it next to the members but is not counted among them.
• Controls: Tree overview → Family lines. The detail of a family line shows Places, Name forms and Members by generation; generations are numbered in Roman numerals from the founder.
• Since: app 3.19.0

A4.1.1 Editing a family line by hand

The computation can be corrected in the dialog Edit family line… (the detail of a family line or the menu Family line actions at a person's Family line row).

• Limits:
  • Before each change a preview What will change is shown with the numbers of members and of those married in. A change is one step back: "Every change can be undone (Undo, Change history)."
  • An added form can merge two family lines and a removed form can split one. Family lines are joined by a parent–child link, not by the name form ("The lines are joined by a parent–child link, not by the form.").
  • A read-only tree and a followed tree can only be viewed. Only the open tree can be changed.
  • In a tree connected to the research, the research gets the correction of a family line the same way as groups of spellings (sending changes see S2).
• Since: app 3.19.0

A4.2 Family line by birth, and those who married in

A person's card and the person page have the row Family line. A member of a family line has their family line by birth there and possibly "· married into …". Whoever married into the family line has "wife in … line" or "husband in … line" and possibly "· born into …".

• Limits:
  • A person is shown as a wife or husband when they have no family line of their own, when their family line is only themselves, or when their family line is small (A4.3) and the marriage leads into a large family line. Otherwise they are shown as a member.
  • The family line by birth of a husband or wife is named only when it has more than one person.
  • A placeholder person and a person without a family line and without a marriage into one have no row.
  • In pages and exports with privacy of living people, the row of a living person is shown only with the option Full data or Keep surname only.
• Controls: the menu Family line actions at the row: Show family line in tree, Edit family line…, Start a family line from this person…, Family line book…. Choosing a family line in the tree view is described in A6.
• Since: app 3.19.0

A4.3 Small family lines and Other families

A family line with at most 4 real members is small. Those who married in are not counted among the 4. Small family lines are under Other families (up to 4 people), large family lines have a row of their own.

• Limits:
  • A family line formed by a single person who married into another family line does not belong to Other families. Such a family line is not in the list of family lines at all; the person is shown at the family line they married into.
  • Two different rules: a large family line is told apart from family lines of the same name only against other large ones, a small one against all (A4.4).
• Controls: Tree overview → Family lines → Other families. In the toolbar Family lines → Other families (A6).
• Since: app 3.19.0

A4.4 Order and names of family lines

A family line is named by the founder's surname. A family line founded by a woman bears the form of the first man in the line. When a family line has the same name as other family lines, it gets a distinction in brackets.

• Limits:
  • Family lines are sorted from the largest by the number of real members, on a tie by the founder's birth.
  • The founder's year is the year of birth, otherwise of baptism, otherwise of the oldest record. An approximate year reads "c.".
  • The founder's town is the place of birth, otherwise of baptism, otherwise the first event with a place.
  • Sorting in the overview: size (members and those married in), oldest (start of the family line), A–Z (by name in the app's language). The choice is remembered on the device, not in the tree.
  • From 20 large family lines the overview has a search and shows the first 20 family lines, the rest after expanding. It searches in the name, name forms, towns and members' names.
  • The time axis of family lines is rounded to 50 years.
• Controls: Tree overview → Family lines, the field "Search line, place or person…". The list Family lines in the toolbar has the same order and names, with Whole tree and Other families (A6).
• Since: app 3.19.0 (the list Family lines in the toolbar 3.21.0)

A4.5 Feminine and masculine forms of a surname

The app pairs the masculine and feminine form of a surname as one name: Horák and Horáková, Vlk and Vlková, Jaworski and Jaworska. The pairing applies to search, merging people, family lines and the married surname suggestion.

• Limits:
  • A tree is Czech when the app runs in Czech, or when some surname or group of forms contains a Czech letter (á é í ý č ď ě ň ř š ť ů ž ú ľ ĺ ŕ ä ô). The letter ó does not make a tree Czech.
  • Outside a Czech tree the Czech rules are not used. Ivanova is thus not paired with Ivan.
  • The feminine form -ska/-cka/-dzka belongs to -ski outside a Czech tree. In a Czech tree it stays under the Czech rules, because it can be a spelling without diacritics (Liska instead of Liška). Jaworski is paired with Jaworska anyway, but a search for "Jaworski" does not find a woman recorded as Jaworska.
  • A Polish form must have at least 4 characters before the ending -i/-a. A surname shorter than 3 characters gets no feminine form.
  • From -ová back, all possible masculine forms are tried (Jalůvková → Jalůvk, Jalůvka, Jalůvek). The stem must have at least 3 characters, otherwise -ová is read as an adjective (Nová → Nový).
  • Forms joined by the user (A4.7) always apply, outside a Czech tree too.
• From app 3.22.0: a tree with mostly Polish surnames is Polish and does not get the Czech rules even with the app in Czech (Nowak does not get the form Nowaková). The feminine form -ska is paired with -ski in every tree where -ski is present.
• Since: app 1.16.0 (Polish forms 3.21.2)

A4.6 Married surname and the surname in use

A person has a birth Surname and separately a Married surname. The birth surname sets the family line and the name forms. The married surname serves for display and search.

When a woman's married surname is empty, the person editor offers "Suggestion: …" from the husband's surname, made feminine according to A4.5. Use fills it in, Hide suggestion hides it and the same suggestion is not offered again.

• Limits:
  • The husband is the man from a union that is or was a marriage (divorced too). Of marriages with a date, the one with the latest date wins, otherwise the last in order. A union without marriage gives no suggestion.
  • A placeholder husband gives no suggestion. The suggestion is not offered when it equals the birth surname.
  • Where the rules do not apply, the husband's surname is offered unchanged (Brenntaler).
  • The field Married surname is shown when it is filled in, for a woman with a union, or after + married surname.
  • Surname in use (Birth / Married) is shown only under a filled-in married surname. It is useful for example after a divorce.
• Controls: the display of all people is changed by Settings → Person card → Surname display:

The note "formerly" is only in the person's detail (card menu, relationship panel, editor header), not on the cards.

• From app 3.22.0: for a woman the birth surname field has the hint "Surname at birth" and an empty married surname says that the surname gained by marriage belongs there.
• Since: app 3.13.0 (surname in use 3.18.0)

A4.7 Surname spellings of the tree and suggestions from the research

Different spellings of one name (Horák, Horak, Horrák) can be joined into a group. A group applies to the whole tree: search, merging people and family lines then take the forms as one name, also for people added later.

• Limits:
  • A group that overlaps with another is combined with it into one.
  • The tree remembers a removed form as a rejected pair.
  • A form of a single person (a nickname, a name after a farm) belongs to Other spellings of the name at the person, not to the tree's groups. Search (A4.8) and merging people compare these forms too; after a merge the forms of both people stay, and the spelling that lost a name conflict is added to them.
  • Suggest from the research shows the research's suggestions on two levels: Documented and By rules, each with a reason and records. Nothing is joined without a confirmation (Accept / Reject, Undo).
  • Suggestions are not offered when they are rejected, already lie in one group, or would join two groups. 10 suggestions are shown, more after Show … more.
  • Accept all documented and Accept all that differ only in diacritics are shown from 2 suggestions.
  • "Suggestions are available while the research is running." Without the research the last loaded suggestions are shown. An accepted group "goes to the research with the next sending of changes" (S2).
• Controls: Tree settings → Surname spellings… (only for the open tree), Link, Unlink, Suggest from the research. A form of one family line: Edit family line… → + form (A4.1.1).
• Since: app 1.15.0 (suggestions from the research 3.17.0)

A4.8 Searching and sorting names

Searching for a person ignores upper and lower case, diacritics and punctuation. It finds a person under the birth surname, the married surname, all their forms (A4.5, A4.7) and under the person's other spellings of the name.

• Limits:
  • On a tie and without a query the sorting is by "surname given name", in the browser's alphabetical order.
  • When a person is found only by a surname that the name on the card does not show, the result gives it under the name ("married …", "née …", "formerly …").
  • The Latin and German form of a given name (Wenceslaus, Wenzel × Václav) is paired only when a read document is compared with the tree, not in search.
• Controls: the search in the toolbar, the choice of a person and the surname field in the extended filter.
• Since: app 3.0.0 (married surname in search 3.13.0)