Jerry: The recommended standard (_Getting It Right_ by Mary H. Slawson) is to leave the field blank if you don't have the data. That, however, is unacceptable to many (most?) researchers so everyone seems to develop their own method--and none of these are universally accepted. The only thing that is strongly discouraged is the use of abbreviations such as Unk, LNU, NMI (Unknown, Last Name Unknown, No Middle Initial) etc.
Kirsten -----Original Message----- From: Jerry [mailto:jerrysemailgro...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 1:59 PM To: LegacyUserGroup@LegacyUsers.com Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Unknown Grandchildren/G-Grandchildren On 02/28/2011 11:53 AM, Dennis M. Kowallek wrote: > On Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:40:31 -0500, "Sheri Harris" > <sharr...@comcast.net> wrote: > >> So far I've just put this information in my notes section referencing my >> source and adding that to my to-do list but this is not working for me. > > I essentially do what you are doing. But I don't think you explained why > it isn't working. > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I've seen the references to unknown names and lots of question marks that genealogists have used for years, but I don't know if there is a standard for unknown names. If there is, I'd like to know what is the standard and why. But I dislike the idea intensely of putting Lastname ?, Unknown Name ? or the many other ways that you see out there, so we developed our own method, which I think has some merit because it can give a hint to find that unknown name because of his/her relationship to another person. For example, on our website, you will see things like: BEEMER, Edna ? (Wife of William) - that means we don't have Edna's last name, but we know she was married to William BEEMER. BEADLE, Given Name ? (Husband of Sarah Ann MADILL) - that means we don't have Mr. Beadle's first name, but we know he was married to Sarah Ann Madill). DOE, Given Name ? (Son #1 of Paul) - that means we don't have a first name for a son of Paul DOE. It might be irregular, but it is a means of putting information about that person directly in the name field, and therefore, it appears in the master name index as a ready-reference for everyone using the site. I just thought I'd share that and see what some of your ideas are. Regards, Jerry / http://www.MerriamFamilyTree.org Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
