The big problem with "Not Entered" Spouses is that the reports don't show anything at all for the spouse. For example, the ancestor trees simply leave a bare limb and the descendant reports don't even refer to a possible spouse. I send printed versions of charts to as many people as I can so that they can (a) learn their own ancestry and (b) correct errors I may have. A major "error" that I may have is that I may not know the name of a spouse and if a correspondent reviews a report that completely ignores a spouse, he/she may not realize that the name is missing. What I always try to do is enter something. The idea is that "something" is always better than "nothing" -- even if the "something" is a bit wrong. Here are a couple of examples. Suppose I know that Jim Ramaley is married, but I have no other information about the possible wife or partner. I would enter in "Jim Ramaley" as the husband (actually I would presume the name to be James -- although that is occasionally wrong) and "unknown" for the wife. If I knew Jim's birth date, say 1940, I would also usually enter the unknown wife's birth date as "cir 1942" While "May-December" marriages have always existed, they are the exception and so it usually does not hurt to indicate an unknown wife as being about 2 years younger than her husband. Often it has helped. Another example, suppose I know that the name of Jim's wife is Mary (maybe from a census record). I would enter the name of the wife as "Mary unknown Ramaley". This helps when I am looking for additional information about her because newspaper articles, etc., would usually refer to her married name "Mary Ramaley." The same is true of unknown husbands. Often you can deduce that a person you are tracking is or was married, but you do not know the husband's given name. If the wife's married name is Jane Doe I would simply enter the name "unknown Doe" for the husband. If the wife's maiden name is Jane Doe, I would simply enter unknown, or unknown husband for the spouse. Jim Ramaley Gettysburg, PA ----- Original Message ----- From: Gilles de C. Paquette To: bk@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2011 12:47 PM Subject: Re: [BK] NOT ENTERED Spouses For as long as I can remember (BK for DOS), I have always used "N..." for an unknown person, either male (yes it happens) or female. Even if the known person has only one child. Just my small bit of experience. Happy holidays all. Gilles Paquette Le 2011-12-17 09:36, Paul J. Lareau a ecrit : > There has been a problem with NOT ENTERED spouses for a long time. > Although I haven't encountered the specific result described below, I have > had to use a workaround for as long as I can remember to avoid problems > later appearing on Register Reports. > > Whenever a person has children by multiple spouses, the name of at least one > of which is unknown/not entered, I always create the NOT ENTERED spouse as a > dummy entry (e.g., I use "_____ _____" ). That way the children will > actually be listed in the correct coupling on the printed listings. > > Actually, that was the way I always did all spouses with unknown names even > at the beginning (back in the BK5 years), long before I found out that you > could add children to an individual without designating a spouse. Even > after I learned you could do that, it seemed a bit illogical to me (kids > don't result from individuals, only couples), and was a very late adaptor to > that method, and still prefer specifying a dummy name if multiple spouses > are indicated. It's easier to keep my head straight especially with the > increasing number of his-hers-ours families, even though it is a bit more > work. > > -- > Paul J. Lareau > Freedom for Imprisoned Books! > Don't Chain them to a Dusty Bookshelf. > Visit: http://www.bookcrossing.com and my bookshelf > at: http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/pjlareau > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > 135 E. Viking Dr. #301, Little Canada MN 55117 USA > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Howard Slatter"<haslatter@ntlworld.com> > To:<bk@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2011 3:01 AM > Subject: Re: [BK] Compare two databases possible problem > > >> On possibly a related problem which I have recently encountered (BK >> 6.5.3): >> >> A woman has a child by a "not entered" partner, then later marries a >> husband and has more children with him. All well and good so far. I >> then discover a second child from her and the first partner. If I try >> to add that child to her while the "not entered" partner is showing on >> the edit screen, then BK in fact adds him to the other family (i.e. >> gives him the wrong father). There's an easy workaround, which is to >> add him as a sibling of the first child, but it's annoying that the >> obvious method fails. >> >> Howard >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in >> the subject and the body of the message >> > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Jim, Id pretty much as you do, but in your example I would use "Mary Ramaley??", Then in the register report, which I usually send people, I have a MS Word macro which changes the "??" to red bold, kind of stands out then that something is amiss with her name. On the date, I would enter ?/?/19??, BK complains but I accept it anyway, and the macro also colors those "?" red. Leaving it blank, like you have indicated also, does not tell the reviewer anything is missing or incomplete. Jim -----Original Message----- From: bk-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:bk-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Jim Ramaley Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2011 4:49 PM To: bk@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [BK] NOT ENTERED Spouses The big problem with "Not Entered" Spouses is that the reports don't show anything at all for the spouse. For example, the ancestor trees simply leave a bare limb and the descendant reports don't even refer to a possible spouse. I send printed versions of charts to as many people as I can so that they can (a) learn their own ancestry and (b) correct errors I may have. A major "error" that I may have is that I may not know the name of a spouse and if a correspondent reviews a report that completely ignores a spouse, he/she may not realize that the name is missing. What I always try to do is enter something. The idea is that "something" is always better than "nothing" -- even if the "something" is a bit wrong. Here are a couple of examples. Suppose I know that Jim Ramaley is married, but I have no other information about the possible wife or partner. I would enter in "Jim Ramaley" as the husband (actually I would presume the name to be James -- although that is occasionally wrong) and "unknown" for the wife. If I knew Jim's birth date, say 1940, I would also usually enter the unknown wife's birth date as "cir 1942" While "May-December" marriages have always existed, they are the exception and so it usually does not hurt to indicate an unknown wife as being about 2 years younger than her husband. Often it has helped. Another example, suppose I know that the name of Jim's wife is Mary (maybe from a census record). I would enter the name of the wife as "Mary unknown Ramaley". This helps when I am looking for additional information about her because newspaper articles, etc., would usually refer to her married name "Mary Ramaley." The same is true of unknown husbands. Often you can deduce that a person you are tracking is or was married, but you do not know the husband's given name. If the wife's married name is Jane Doe I would simply enter the name "unknown Doe" for the husband. If the wife's maiden name is Jane Doe, I would simply enter unknown, or unknown husband for the spouse. Jim Ramaley Gettysburg, PA ----- Original Message ----- From: Gilles de C. Paquette To: bk@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2011 12:47 PM Subject: Re: [BK] NOT ENTERED Spouses For as long as I can remember (BK for DOS), I have always used "N..." for an unknown person, either male (yes it happens) or female. Even if the known person has only one child. Just my small bit of experience. Happy holidays all. Gilles Paquette Le 2011-12-17 09:36, Paul J. Lareau a ecrit : > There has been a problem with NOT ENTERED spouses for a long time. > Although I haven't encountered the specific result described below, I have > had to use a workaround for as long as I can remember to avoid problems > later appearing on Register Reports. > > Whenever a person has children by multiple spouses, the name of at least one > of which is unknown/not entered, I always create the NOT ENTERED spouse as a > dummy entry (e.g., I use "_____ _____" ). That way the children will > actually be listed in the correct coupling on the printed listings. > > Actually, that was the way I always did all spouses with unknown names even > at the beginning (back in the BK5 years), long before I found out that you > could add children to an individual without designating a spouse. Even > after I learned you could do that, it seemed a bit illogical to me (kids > don't result from individuals, only couples), and was a very late adaptor to > that method, and still prefer specifying a dummy name if multiple spouses > are indicated. It's easier to keep my head straight especially with the > increasing number of his-hers-ours families, even though it is a bit more > work. > > -- > Paul J. Lareau > Freedom for Imprisoned Books! > Don't Chain them to a Dusty Bookshelf. > Visit: http://www.bookcrossing.com and my bookshelf > at: http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/pjlareau > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > 135 E. Viking Dr. #301, Little Canada MN 55117 USA > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Howard Slatter"<haslatter@ntlworld.com> > To:<bk@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2011 3:01 AM > Subject: Re: [BK] Compare two databases possible problem > > >> On possibly a related problem which I have recently encountered (BK >> 6.5.3): >> >> A woman has a child by a "not entered" partner, then later marries a >> husband and has more children with him. All well and good so far. I >> then discover a second child from her and the first partner. If I try >> to add that child to her while the "not entered" partner is showing on >> the edit screen, then BK in fact adds him to the other family (i.e. >> gives him the wrong father). There's an easy workaround, which is to >> add him as a sibling of the first child, but it's annoying that the >> obvious method fails. >> >> Howard >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in >> the subject and the body of the message >> > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message