Thanks, Michele, Bob and Jan for thinking about this. My main concern is unanticipated side effects. Placeholders like Mr. or Firstwife work well for the original compiler, who has Legacy and external files, but wider distribution and less capable software must be anticipated. Legacy too might hiccup on empty fields or "name" duplication - or perhaps work better...
"Mr." is a good example. In principle it's a quick search key for placeholders. In practice, it's often important in genealogical analysis to identify yeoman or gentleman social status, and is particularly useful in distinguishing a socially prominent line amongst similar entries in parish registers. For that purpose, the prefix field is ideal and alternate use of the given name field implies a placeholder. But does that work for other programs and propagate quietly via gedcoms? Is the trailing period a possible problem, or later parsing where all name fields are empty? I need to send a PAF Gedcom from Legacy to my cousin, who may further enter the branch to LDS and Ancestry trees... Also on side effects, I use Mr where it's not known which brother was the father, as elsewhere in this Pratt line. One side effect is to add a phantom brother to the older generation. No problem with Legacy, which has ample opportunity for notes and simple procedures for correction, but I don't want to seed a phantom into some future database. AKAs do seem the best path for the Richord/Richard mess, though Richord is only a search key for defectively entered records. But again, with both name fields empty, will AKAs propagate and behave quietly? Pratt-wife has definite appeal. Similarly, Pratt-child or Pratt-dau seems less likely to cause trouble than Unknown for the daughters. It's all ugly expedients... Thanks again kb 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
