Help:Surname categories

Introduction
There is (or is intended to be) for each surname a separate category, which in turn is a subcategory of the category for surnames in general. Edit the category link at the bottom of the individual's page to state that person's surname. For example Percy Stanley Marks (1911-1988) has a at the bottom of the page. This leads to the category:Marks Surname. Another example is Category:Blackman_Surname.

If the category for that surname does not already exist, you will be asked to edit a new page. There is a Surname Template, which you may use. Copy the text from the box into your edit window. The text included at the end of the surname template automatically links this category up to the Surname Category. You may then add a line or two specific to the category, such as "Very common surname in Shropshire."; if you want to write several paragraphs about that surname, please create an article for it (also in the category) so that the lists of subcategories and articles don't get pushed too far down the category page.

How to find one
The "Search" function is not perfect. To find a particular surname category out of the thousands, browsing though the whole of Category:Surnames is not appealing unless your target name comes early in the "A's". We are planning a work-around for this. Until it is working, one option is a simple search using the surname; but if that produces a very long list of pages try this:
 * http://genealogy.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special%3APrefixindex&from=Z&namespace=14, then you should see a box with "Display pages with prefix:"; if (as is likely) you've seen enough "Z" categories, replace the Z by whatever initial letter or group of letters you like and hit Enter; if the resulting list is too long for comfort, add another letter to the group in the box and try again.

(The same trick works for other namespaces - just change the final "14" to another number. We may repeat this hint in other places relating to other namespaces that produce long hitlists.)

Alternative spellings
Where you are familiar with alternative spellings (eg White/Whyte), please note them on the category page and if possible link to those categories. Other readers may not have known of the alternatives or thought to look there.