Tech Forum

I have a member of my ward who, when she logs in to Family Search it shows her last name as being the last name she used to have when before her divorce and sealing cancellation. Her church record is correct on lds.org. The problem is unique to Family Search.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Tyler

tylerlybb wrote:I have a member of my ward who, when she logs in to Family Search it shows her last name as being the last name she used to have when before her divorce and sealing cancellation. Her church record is correct on lds.org. The problem is unique to Family Search.

FamilySearch.org uses a Display Name, which the user can change. To change it, she needs to:

1. Sign in to FamilySearch.org
2. Click on her name in the upper right part of the screen.
3. That will drop down options, among which will be Settings. Click on Settings.
4. She'll then see an edit box labeled "Display Name". Change it to the desired value and then click "Save Changes" below.

While she's in her Settings, she may want to go to the CONTACT tab and make sure that her Contact Name is also correct after her name change.

The name that shows up wrong is not the Display Name, it is the name that appears in the Full Name field. Any idea how to fix that?

tylerlybb wrote:The name that shows up wrong is not the Display Name, it is the name that appears in the Full Name field. Any idea how to fix that?

You're going to have to be more specific about where you are seeing this. There is indeed a Full Name field in the Account section of the person's Settings in FamilySearch, but as near as I can tell, it's not used anywhere. I can't see any way to change it, but since the user is the only one who sees it, and only sees it when he/she goes into Settings, I don't see why it would be a significant concern.

Your original post said "when she logs in to Family Search it shows her last name...." If this is visible somewhere other than the Settings Full Name, please help me understand where she is seeing that. The different places I see names shown are:

• The name shown in the upper right corner (which links to the dropdown that shows Settings, Source Box, and Sign Out) is the Display Name.
• The name shown in the tree is a person name that is editable like any other tree person's name.
• The name attached to a person's contributions (e.g., who attached a source, or edited a date, etc.) is the Contact Name, which is set in the Contact section of Settings.

By the way, thanks for your time.

I am talking about the Full Name field in the Account section of her Settings in FamilySearch. The reason it concerns her is it shows her last name as being the last name of her previous husband from whom she has been divorced for many years. The question is, why doesn't the Full Name just come from her church record? To be sure, I checked her church record and couldn't find her ex-husband's name anywhere. So, lds.org has it correct. I just would like to help her get it show up correctly on FamilySearch, if I can.

FamilySearch maintains its own database of user information because many non-members sign up for FamilySearch without setting up a LDS Account. I'm not sure how independent FamilySearch accounts are from LDS Account today (today, of course, you can use your LDS Account to sign into FamilySearch), but historically they have been separate.

tylerlybb wrote:I am talking about the Full Name field in the Account section of her Settings in FamilySearch. The reason it concerns her is it shows her last name as being the last name of her previous husband from whom she has been divorced for many years. The question is, why doesn't the Full Name just come from her church record? To be sure, I checked her church record and couldn't find her ex-husband's name anywhere. So, lds.org has it correct. I just would like to help her get it show up correctly on FamilySearch, if I can.

I know that having your name listed correctly can be a sensitive issue, but I really don't think there is anything to be concerned about. As near as I can tell, the "Full Name" field is a legacy field that appears nowhere else -- no other users will ever see it. If she really wants it changed, her only option will be to contact FamilySearch Support to request a change.

Okay, this makes sense now. Thanks to both of you.

I tried calling Family Search support. They really did not know how to fix this problem. The way I found was to call GSC and ask for account management. They were able to fix it immediately.

Hi, I am having this same issue. What is GSC?