RIN, MRIN, Database Key, whatever you want to call them, they are internal pointers used by a database to speed up organizing and searching. Every record is given a sequential number when it is added to the database. This is what is being called RIN. When two records are joined as a marriage, a separate key is used to link the two records together. Makes for much smaller and faster databases. These numbers are internal to the database and were never intended for human consumption.
This is the first time I have seen a database making those numbers available to the user. The numbers are essentially meaningless to the user and are subject to change depending on what happens to the database. To try to use them for other record keeping is asking for trouble. Personally, I have turned them off so I don't even see them. Unfortunately, there is no ideal numbering system for genealogy. The magnitude of the issue is overwhelming and I doubt that we will ever see such a system. -- Jim Walton "...probe the past carefully and report it as it was, not as I wish it were" From Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
