During the last 2 or so months, I read a posting ... somewhere, on one of the many lists I subscribe to, that "Unknown" and "?" should *not* be entered. As I recall, the poster said that he had recently attended a genealogy conference ... and the standard is to leave the unknown information blank. If I recall correctly, the reason for the standard of leaving the unknown information blank, relates to LDS standards and to familysearch.org search options.
My guess is that the LDS standard relates to someone who intends to give the LDS / FHL their database. That said, in answer to your questions, this is what I do ... not in compliance with the "standard". > 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? I enter UNKNOWN as the surname of anyone I don't know. Why I do this?: ability to search, prepare reports for anyone who has an UNKNOWN last name. Also, when I'm working on a particular family with an UNKNOWN ... it spurs me on to spend more time filling in the blank. Downside: UNKNOWN doesn't look good in reports. (It doesn't look 'good', if you have UNKNOWN information in your data. Well, I say, who knows, or can find EVERYTHING!) > 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? If the given name of a child ... or an adult is not known, I enter Unknown for the same reasons given in 1) above. If I see Unknown SMITH, glance at the DOB and DOD, I can easily determine that this was an infant death. > 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? If I know the names of siblings, I create parents, using the Unknown UNKNOWN scheme described above. For the same reasons described in 1), with the same downside. ***** I don't use Legacy for data entry on a regular basis; normally I use RootsMagic. RootsMagic prompts me for same names as being duplicates of existing people in my database ... be it Elizabeth UNKNOWN, Unknown SMITH, or Unknown UNKNOWN. In RootsMagic, I review the other data provided in search of a possible link, but usually click "new person". I believe that Legacy has the same scheme. Hope this helps. Look forward to other poster's ideas. Becky 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
