It's not that hard, but due to us not being used to these names, you'd benefit of taking notes. "Son-of-this-and-that" is just like the family name in their cas

It's not that hard, but due to us not being used to these names, you'd benefit of taking notes. "Son-of-this-and-that" is just like the family name in their case. Something like, imagine, John Smithson and John Markson, if the narration starts about one person, once it will be refereed to as John Smithson, then probably just Smithson or just John. The second problem is that the narration assumes that the "famous" relations are known. If I mention the Beatles, then say just John, everybody knows John who. Or whoever now says England and then the Queen and Kate, everybody knows who's that about... But you're dealing with the stories from almost 3000 years ago.