John, Thanks for taking the time to explain your methods. At the very least, I see the need to be consistant. I really liked the sharing of what you did and why you did it.
Diane ----- Original Message ----- From: "John B. Lisle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 8:46 PM Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Three questions. > Stephen, > > As you are likely seeing, for every person there is a standard that > suits you best. I developed a personal standard based on several > goals, not the least of which was how would the data read when > compiling a registry type report. And knowing that most of my work > was single name studies. > > 1/ For unknown surnames, I adopted the string [--?--] several years > ago. I recent article by Eastman or someone noted that this was > becoming popular as measured by the number of usages in RootsWeb's > WorldConnect. "Unknown" as a surname sorts into the middle of a > surname index. I preferred to have something that was lumped either > at the beginning or end of the surname lists. Something no one would > ever confuse for being a surname. "?" just did not seem strong enough. > > 2/ For children whose given name I don't know, I use Son, Daughter, > or Infant depending on my knowledge of their sex. If there is more > than one of a fictitious given name, I use a suffix I II III, etc. so > that each child in a family would have a unique name. > > So as not to put extraneous stuff in the Place location, I add notes > like "Died in Infancy", "Died in WWI", "At Sea" in the Death Notes field. > > 3/ I use "Miss" and "Mister" for spouses when I do not know their > given name. This gets a bit tiring; however, it allows the individual > in the database index to be recognized as to what sex they are. If I > have documented their parents, rule 2 applies. > > 4/ If I have two siblings that I want to document as siblings in my > database but do not know their names, I create parents with as much > naming knowledge as possible from Mister [--?--] and Miss [--?--] to > Mister Jones and Mary [--?--]. Quite often based on the records > (census, etc.) you may have some knowledge about these people that > may be helpful in later identifying them. Such as possible place of > birth from an 1880 or later census or estimated deaths, etc. > > 5/ I should mention a bit about how I document dates. > > First, if I suspect or presume that a person is deceased, I put > "unknown" in the first for the death date. This does a good job of > making sure that some zealous software does not decide to privatize > the individual. > > Second, I use "about" dates when I have some documentation to provide > evidence for the date; examples: If an 1850 census give an age for a > child as 8, I will record the birth year as about 1842; if a 1900 > census gives birth date as July 1842, I will enter about July 1842; > if a death record or gravestone gives an age at death, when I compute > the birth date, I enter it as an about date (and never give it more > precision that the age - ie, if age 42, I will never give the birth > date to greater precision than year.). > > Third, I use Estimated Dates for birth dates (especially) when I have > no record, but I want the index to sort the person into the right > date range. For instance, I was entering some marriages into my > database for people I have not yet identified (based on various > marriage record compilations.). I gave an estimated birth date for > the spouses so when I went back to census and other records, I had a > starting point for identifying the people. > > I have a lot more rules for my data entry, but that is enough for > now. And I am sure that a dozen people will tell you their system is > best and what is wrong with my system. That is OK. If anyone give me > an idea for how to do something better, I will try to adopt it. I > have evolved this system over about 10+ years of data entry. I > switched to Legacy as it provided the capability to better do some of > the things I had wanted to do. My databases have about a total of > 100,000 names in them. Most of them are hand entered. If I do get a > Gedcom or family file from someone else, I will first re-work all of > the data so that it complies with my standard before I merge it into my data. > > Listen to what others are doing and synthesize your own standard. And > always remember what your end goal is. And how that standard will > look when the data is represented in whatever charts or reports or > web sites you plan to create. > > john. > Nashua, NH > > > At 09:06 PM 4/18/2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >I have just started using Legacy and have three questions on its usage. > > > >1) What is the best, standard, most efficient, etc. method of > >entering a wife when the maiden name is unknown and there is little > >prospect of determining it? I have varied between entering the > >husband's given name and entering a question mark. Or can (should) > >the surname be left blank? > > > >2) How should an unnamed child that died in infancy be entered? I > >want it recorded and have entered the child with "Unnamed Son Of" as > >the first name and the surname as the last name. Is there a better method? > > > >3) I have entries for people as spouses whose parents are unknown. I > >want to add siblings to those people but Legacy doesn't appear to > >allow the addition of an individual without a parent. How can I get them in? > > > >Thank you. > > > Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp > > Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > > To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ > > For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp > > To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
