It's my understanding that routine use of all caps for surnames in reporting was eventually discouraged because word recognition is slower when all caps is used. As an example, if Question were a surname, QUESTION takes a little more time to analyze than mixed case Question. Bonnie Bonnie Dunphy Kohler Family History Researcher Member, Association of Professional Genealogists Phone: (561) 793-8254 Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonnie.kohler -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, May 5, 2015 1:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TGF] Capitalization of surnames The question did not seem to define a specific area in which we might capitalize. It seems the answer could be, it depends. If this is an article for a publication that capitalizes, then wouldn't we follow the style for the publication? Some genealogy society publications capitalize, many publications don't. If this is your own personal database or genealogy program, what difference does it make to anyone else? My probate and Navy FTM files capitalize the full name of the decedent or serviceman. This helps me to find him quickly in the people index and he stands out on the tree charts. But names are not capitalized in the reports. Could it just depend on the circumstance? d -- Dee Dee King, Certified Genealogist (sm), Certificate 903 Forensic Genealogy Services LLC and Contract Genealogist, US Navy Casualty, POW/MIA Branch Mail address - PO Box 1085, Manvel TX 77578 Telephone/fax 281-595-3090 www.forensicgenealogyservices.com www.facebook.com/forensicgenealogist Certified Genealogist (CG) is a service mark (sm) of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, conferred to associates who consistently meet ethical and competency standards in accord with peer-reviewed evaluations every five years, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message