Married women who keep their last name

[iamrkh]

A woman in my ward, "Jane Smith," is married to "John Brown." When Sister Smith married John Brown, she retained her last name.

In the MLS directory, the household is listed as follows:

Brown, John
Smith, Jane

However, in the LUWS membership directory the household is listed as follows:

Brown
John
Jane

For some reason, her last name doesn't appear in the LUWS listing.

Sister Smith has asked to be listed in the LUWS directory in the "S's" rather than the "B's" because ward members are unable to find her in the directory unless they know to look under her husband's name (few ward members know her husband, who does not attend church).

I am perplexed by this request. Is there any way to make this happen outside of making her the head of household or moving her into a separate household? Short of this, what can be done so that her last name appears on the LUWS directory?

I've noticed that children with different last names than their parents have cross-referenced listings in the MLS directory, e.g., "White, Mary, see Joe Black." But this feature doesn't seem to exist for adults in the MLS directory, and it doesn't seem to be available for children or adults in the LUWS directory.

[russellhltn]

I am perplexed by this request. Is there any way to make this happen outside of making her the head of household or moving her into a separate household?

Nope. Not in this version of LUWS.

[Mikerowaved]

LUWS has a severe (IMO) limitation in that is can ONLY display the last name of the Head of Household for the entire family in that household. This also affects step-children with different last names.

Hopefully this is in the list of improvements for the next revision.

[iamrkh]

Thank you both. Are the options I identified--making her the head of household or making her a separate household--legitimate options in MLS? I assume that the second option is not viable (since she is married), and I gather that MLS won't allow a married woman to be the HoH.

[aebrown]

Thank you both. Are the options I identified--making her the head of household or making her a separate household--legitimate options in MLS? I assume that the second option is not viable (since she is married), and I gather that MLS won't allow a married woman to be the HoH.

Actually, MLS would have no problem with this -- a married woman can be the HoH. This even works if the husband is a member of the ward and now in a separate household.

The challenges would be:

• Children can only belong to one household, so if there are any children, you'd have to pick which household to put them in.
• Data associated with the household would have to be updated in two places.
• The husband and wife would no longer appear grouped together on any reports.
• MLS would think that both households need home teachers assigned.

That's just off the top of my head -- there are probably many other issues to be addressed. It also does seem contrary to statements in the MLS help file that say who should be the HoH. But technically, it is indeed feasible.

[russellhltn]

But technically, it is indeed feasible.

One last thing - I'd gather up all the information on the side effects and then talk to the Bishop on his decision on how it should be handled.

[iamrkh]

Strange thing: when I perform a search for "Smith" using the search function in LUWS, a listing for Jane Smith appears. It appears that LUWS has her surname on file even though it doesn't appear on the main directory listing.

I also noticed that the last names of children with different last names than their parents are displayed on the LUWS directory for my ward, e.g.:

White

John (father)
Joan (mother)
Sarah Beth Black (daughter)
Karen Jo (daughter)
James Michael (son)

White is the legal surname of the father, mother, and the two younger children, and Black is the oldest child's legal surname.

[Mikerowaved]

I also noticed that the last names of children with different last names than their parents are displayed on the LUWS directory for my ward...

My bad. I forgot that some time ago I went through and hand edited the entire LUWS membership list in our ward to show their MLS preferred name. You are correct, the default for LUWS is to display all given names, and includes the last name if it's different than the HoH. Thanks for pointing that out.

[dmaynes]

A woman in my ward, "Jane Smith," is married to "John Brown." When Sister Smith married John Brown, she retained her last name.

In the MLS directory, the household is listed as follows:

Brown, John
Smith, Jane

I have the same problem in my ward. After talking with the sister whose last name differs from her husbands, we just edited the preferred name to say: "Jane Smith". It's not optimal but it's the best we could figure out to do with the current design.

By the way, I have edited nearly all the preferred names so that only a single name shows. When more than two names show, it is because a different last name needs to be displayed.

The LUWS software automatically indents children who have a different last name than the head of household, but when you edit the preferred name the indentation goes away. So, if you want to list a child without the full name (including middle name) who has a different last name than the head of household, you can set the preferred name, but you can't keep the indentation.

Basically the same thing happens with the sister who has retained a different last name than the name of the husband.

I am having a similar problem with Spanish last names. These members usually have two or more last names in MLS, but they only go by one of the last names. I have a married sister whose legal name is only the preferred last name of the husband, and not the combination name of the husband, and the situation is about the same as that which you describe. The children of this marriage also have the preferred last name of the father, but not the combination name of the father. For example, the father's name might be Jorge Sanchez-Panza, but the family goes by Sanchez. The indentation is all messed up, and I can't set the last names for the wife and children to Sanchez-Panza.

Thanks,
Dennis