John, Agreed on all your statements except......
.............and this is my own personal preference on how to do things, and I do not expect nor ask that anyone has to do it my way. I ALWAYS replace and empty given or Surname fields with a placeholder called Unknown I too often receive a gedcom whereby some import/export in the gedcoms past did not properly handle all the data and a given name ends up in the surname field. Just this morning I imported a Gedcom of 272 persons and 4 records had empty given names and the given name in the surname field. Fortunately I caught this as the 4 records were already in my database properly, and when I informed the sender, she said she had spent weeks trying to find Anna (or Johanna) Otto when in fact Anna married Otto Schmitt I do follow your method on given names in that I try to use a gender if possible like UnknownF or UnknownM. Thanks Jay I questions the sender and she said that part was how she got it from someone else. On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 2:22 PM, John B. Lisle <leg...@tqsi.com> wrote: > Jay, > > Thanks. > > Please see below... > > john. > > At 03:41 PM 12/6/2013, Jay 1FamilyTree wrote: > > John, > > You asked that I look into this and report back. > > Regarding the exceptions list (UnknownName.txt) for the Potential Problems > report > > > From my own tests I do not see that the text file allows any comment > lines... > Other text files that Legacy uses (GeoData-alt.txt) does allow comment > lines by using an * > But UnknownName.text does not > > > I expected this as it was a late add to solve the pervasive problem of > unknown type names littering the PP Alerts and Reports and making them > unusable. > > Maybe a future upgrade will allow comment lines, personally I do not like > having text files without comments to explain them. > > > Make the suggestion formally, please. > > > > Be sure to use the filename of UnknownName.txt because UnknownNames.txt > (with an s) does NOT work. > > > Yup. Got that T-shirt... first time we got it to test, the wrong name for > the file was given to us. ;-) > > > Also it appears that these name exceptions are only for the Potential > problem report and that other areas of Legacy do not refer to the exception > list. > > > Where else would you like this to be used? I routinely use up one of my > Tags so that I can exclude folks with my unknown surname [--?--] from being > looked at by the FamilySearch module, so I would like to see that tool have > knowledge of this file. > > > Capitalization DOES matter, 'Child' and 'child' should both be entered if > you want to exclude all references of child. > > > Did not know this. But I am fairly anal when it comes to names. > > This should also be submitted as a suggestion. > > > > So in my UnknownName.txt file I have > > Unknown Child Living Infant Unnamed Baby UNKNOWN child > Unknown UNKNOWN > > The first line is for given names, the second line for Surnames. > > > I know that a lot of files you get might come through with given names > like Living or Private. If possible, I try to genderize them ... ie, if I > can figure out if the person is male or female, I will assign their name > appropriately (eg, Mister, Miss, Son, Daughter, etc.) This provides more > information to the reader. Then, when you create a report that obscures > them as living or private, those names are from Legacy, but whilst you are > working with them, you know what gender they are, at least. > > NOW... the next thing to do is purge your Family File of the Unknown > family. ;-) > > I know it is all too common practice, but using Unknown or ? ?? ??? or Unk > in your data is not considered best practice. I have learned that in many > parts of Europe, NN is the standard. > > I invented [--?--] as my standard about 15+ years ago. I liked it because > it would never be confused as a real name in any language, and it sorts > before the real alphabetic names in an index or name list. > > I mentioned it in a few email postings on various RootsWeb lists I > participate in and it is, of course, throughout my web sites. Others > started adopting it. > > A few years ago there was a report on Rootsweb that it was being used in a > significant number of the WorldConnect databases as the unknown surname. > And, I believe that someone had a note in some NEHGS article using a > variation of my string. > > Try it, you may like it. ;-) > > john. > > > > Jay > > > On Sun, Dec 1, 2013 at 4:23 PM, Jay 1FamilyTree <1familytree....@gmail.com> > wrote: John, > The Help text is not total clear on the UnknownName.txt  requirements... > the example shows > > Child ??? [--?--] NN ??? so does that mean then in a given name field > with only the text "Child" or "???"  will be ignored when creating > potential problems?  Does capitalization matter??   what if its > "child" ? > > Will this text file allow for 'comments' ? Like  > #Given names Child ??? #Surnames   [--?--] > Just most of us do not automatically know how to do these type > customizations!   But yet another reason why Legacy is so great! > Thanks Jay > > > > > > > Could you or someone provide an example of the contents of unknownname.txt > ? > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Dec 1, 2013 at 3:56 PM, Kurt Kneeland <kurt-kneel...@sbcglobal.net> > wrote: > > Great tip on the UnknownName.txt file. I’ve also seen mention of > .txt files for customizing the GeoCodes data. Are there any other of > these little know customization techniques? >  > From: John B. Lisle [ mailto:leg...@tqsi.com <leg...@tqsi.com>] Sent: > Sunday, December 01, 2013 4:41 PM To: LegacyUserGroup@LegacyUsers.com Subject: > RE: [LegacyUG] Favorite Option >  > C G, Randy, et al, > When we first got to testing the PP Alerts, I felt the same way you are > feeling. Today, the number of PP Alerts that pop up incorrectly - as > determined by your settings - is very small. And when they happen, tell us > about them so that the developers can look into them and get them fixed. > There are two activities you can do that can significantly reduce your > "false alarms". > 1/ If you have various naming conventions for unknown given and surnames, > you can list those in a file called UnknownName.txt. Help has the details. > This allows you to still find problems in names but exclude the bulk of the > names that you expect to not conform to "standards". > 2/ The NEW category for Potential Problems called "Gaps" are going to > drive many people wild. I think you need to adjust your use of those Gap > settings. Please note that the settings for the Potential Problems Report > determine what types of problems you want Alerts for. You can set the Gaps > settings there for different time periods, or just turn those settings off, > if you choose not to worry about those settings. I know I have fiddled with > those to suit the needs of my family files. > These instant PP Alerts are one of the great benefits of L8 as they alert > you while you are entering data if you have entered something that does not > make sense. > And, as mentioned by someone else, the ability to know when you add a new > person that the person may be a duplicate of someone already in your file, > can save you a ton of work. > L8 is going to change the way you do research and lots of folks do not > like to change their habits. In the long run, these features will promote > your research to being more accurate and better respected. > Just my opinion... I could be wrong... > john. > At 03:31 PM 12/1/2013, C.G. Ouimet wrote: > Especially since many of the problems are really false alarms … Too many > fallse alarms leads to ignoring real ones … >   C.G. Ouimet Kingston ON  From: Randy Clark [ > mailto:ceddaco...@gmail.com <ceddaco...@gmail.com>] Sent: December 01, > 2013 03:22 PM To: LegacyUserGroup@LegacyUsers.com Subject: [LegacyUG] > Favorite Option  I love Option 8.11 as it lets me turn off those > annoying warning symbols. > > > > 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 > Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and > on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp > 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 Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). 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