Elizabeth wrote (to Rondina): > When I submitted a report for the NGS American Genealogy: Home Study Course in which I referred to a surname as you have suggested, I was called out by the person who graded the report. I was told to refer to the name in all variant forms, separated by a forward slash (solidus) throughout the document. There are so many differing opinions on these issues, it is confusing. I referred to Professional Genealogy. Name variants are not covered. Elizabeth, You are right that this issue is one of many on which genealogists have differing opinions--most of them based on "how we were taught" or "how we've always done it." NGS's evaluators also face the same problem that BCG faced before its adoption of standards and rubrics for evaluating portfolios. The evaluators want to be helpful and, in that spirit, see endless ways they can offer advice. That's good. The problem happens when one evaluator's *opinion* differs from another. To my knowledge, NGS has not adopted a standard for this matter, other than that followed by its journal (see my later comment). With regard to ProGen, it does indeed address the issue in two places: - Page 295, second bullet, covers the treatment of names in abstracts and transcripts. - Page 458, last paragraph ("Standardized Spellings") covers the treatment of names in our narratives. If one accepts ProGen as an authority, then Rondina's advice is on solid grounds. Another helpful practice in matters of punctuation and style is to observe how things are handled in standard writing manuals and our field's top-tier journals and textbooks. In my observation, slashes are not liberally used in these venues. Given a choice between the two options below, which would you find the most readable? - William Timmons is said to have married Anna Maria Reifschneider (var. Reifsnider, Reffschneider, Reffsnyder, Rayschneider). - William Timmons is said to have married Anna Maria Reifschneider/Reifsnider/Reffschneider/Reffsnyder/Rayschneider. Elizabeth ------------------------------------------------ Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG www.HistoricPathways.com www.EvidenceExplained.com www.Facebook.com/EvidenceExplained