Here's my thinking on it, Paula, trying to explain as briefly as possible. Quite often when you go to a genealogy website, the first thing you do is pull up the master person list to check for your possible ancestors. On many websites (if not most), you will see the very top of the list will begin with those that ONLY have first names like a bunch of Andrews, Sarahs, Williams, the word UNKNOWN that lots of people use, etc.
The FIRST NAME ONLYs are generally at the very top of the index and they basically tell you nothing meaningful unless there are also columns for the spouse or parents. So, I wanted to provide a possible eye-catching list that always has a FIRST NAME and a SURNAME. Neither of them are ever blank because I use as much information as I have to describe the missing pieces of the puzzle. Whether it will eventually work to get people to respond with the right information, we are not sure yet, but at least it looks more organized and is easier to go through our list. I have at least enough information to know that a complete father or mother, sister or brother's name is missing or, of course, I would leave it completely blank. With that type of system, I can easily filter a list of all my unknown names because a ? always appears in the FIRSTNAME field. You can get a better idea of what I mean by going to our website (username = FullGuest and password = merriam), and sorting on contains ? for the FIRSTNAME field. It depends on what is missing as to where the ? appears, but if the Given Name is missing we use Given Name ? and if the entire name is missing we use Name ?, etc. I know the purists on here think that is horrible, but I'm trying to use the computer database in the most organized way I can with the information I have. I hope that makes a little bit of sense anyway. Sincerely, Jerry Boor - MerriamFamilyTree.org On 02/15/2012 11:43 AM, Paula Ryburn wrote: > Admittedly, I do not use the webpage-generation feature, but if > they're unknown, what's the point of including them as specific > individuals? I guess you must have one piece of information on each > individual that made you decide to add them...? Otherwise, there's > not any value in having the actual Individual record in your > database...? Yes, please do point out the error in my thinking! It > may just be a preference thing. > --Paula in Texas > Researching: Adair Baker Beasley Benson Betz Bigley Blagrave Burton > Chapman Clement Clough Coppernoll Costine Daulton Dinwiddie Doody > Ellis Exline Field Floran Floyd Gates Goodale Gordon Gump Hale > Harbaugh Hind Hopkins Hughes Hurdle Jones Klein Koyle Laswell McDonald > Misner Passwaters Pelton Roberts Roche Ryburn Sanford Short Singer > Sullivan Weller Williams > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* Jerry <jerrysemailgro...@gmail.com> > *To:* LegacyUserGroup@LegacyUsers.com > *Sent:* Tue, February 14, 2012 6:04:57 PM > *Subject:* Re: [LegacyUG] What name to use? > > Very good pointt, Paula, but on our website we have hundreds of > unknowns, both > > Paula Ryburn <paula.ryb...@sbcglobal.net > <mailto:paula.ryb...@sbcglobal.net>> wrote: > > >Depends on how you do your research. I do mine by family, working > steadily > >backwards, so I rarely use the Name list. > > > >Also, I just last night accidentally discovered I can set more than 3 > bookmarks > >for individuals---- woo hoo! ;) Legacy is still full of surprises > for me. > > > >I guess what I'm saying is: If you are constantly trying to find the > same one > >or two "Unknown Smith" individuals, bookmark them and don't worry > about making > >up something to make them stand out in the Name list. > > --Paula in Texas > > > > 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). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
