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On Margaret's Death Registration, Francis is recorded in the 'If married, to whom" section.

The informant section is Frank - Husband. There is no mistaking the 'k' for 'cis'.

The original record is not available.

Other than this document, I have found no record (so far) for Francis with Frank as a name.

As well as recording Frank in the Notes/Source for Margaret's death, should I also list Frank as a nickname?

Darren
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    There's no hard and fast answer to this -- if you're recording all name variants, you might choose to record this -- but if you though it was a mistake you might annotate the source instead IMO. –  Apr 20 '19 at 12:43
  • My understanding is that "Frank" was a diminutive of "Francis" and I've seen people in the early 20th century flip back and forth btw the 2 forms. Assuming you agree that there is no error, then you might record "Frank" as an alternative / alias name, rather than as a nickname, depending on whether you and / or your software recognise the distinction. – AdrianB38 Apr 20 '19 at 12:50

1 Answers1

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Frank and Francis are the same name; one is from the Old German for "a Frenchman", the other is from the Latin for same, transmitted via Italian. E.G. Withycombe's Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names under Frank says that since about the 16th century, Frank has been "the common abbreviation" of Francis.

If you had a relative named James who signed his name somewhere as Jim, would you bother recording Jim as a nickname? Whatever your answer to that question, do the same with Francis/Frank.

JPmiaou
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