Thanks to all the folk who have responded to my query. Some interesting responses. Otto Jorgensen makes a strong and worthwhile point with regard to how GEDCOM and other people will deal with our data. It's most important that the GEDCOM export understands what we are trying to do and people are in the know, don't get confused as well. The system I have recently been using, putting the number of the quarter in brackets and then entering in the year e.g. (3) 1918 seems to be one of only a few ways people can express quarters in registration years in different genealogy software I still use to publish data to the web, so I have adopted that one instead of the format I used to enter namely SepQtr1918 which wouldn't go through. It seems that BK allows us to be flexible even though the red warning notices come up. It would be good to have a distinction made in Brother's Keeper between Invalid dates and Incomplete dates. Others on this forum have made that point too. That way people would understand better why the warning messages come up. Andrew Jackett of New Zealand. Andrew Jackett of New Zealand. -----Original Message----- From: Otto Jørgensenvia Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 12:10 AM To: Spicer Bob ; [email protected] Subject: Re: [BK] How do I write month and year only? On Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:04:21 +0100, Spicer Bob via <[email protected]> wrote: >I use the notation ???? if I only know the year, or put ?? for the day if I >know the month. For GRO dates I use 99 for the day and the month number for >the Quarter. for example 99061854 for Q2 1854. This translates to >99-JUN-1854. It's my own notation, but I know what it means. In the notes I >put the full GRO reference if you use 99 and other similar unlegal figurcombin ation you also make error in gedcom for those who will import your data -- Otto Jørgensen http://home.online.no/~otjoerge/ All email is checked by NIS2014 Remember - Use the Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Sorry if this comes across as redundant. When I have quarters to enter, often with UK registration of birth dates, I simply put the year, and expand on the quarter in notes. One of the reasons for doing so stems from a registration in the first quarter where that individual was born on 31-Dec. In most cases, though, a registration in the first quarter can't be tied to a specific month, so the note method works best for me. I've always managed to keep valid dates, doing so. What I have had trouble with, and again, ended up using explanatory notes, instead, is when I have the right day and month, but the years "range." Such as individuals known to be born on 05-Mar-191X (1912, 1914, 1917, or 1919, depending on the record). Listing 1912, and commenting in the notes that the date could be any of the others, is a relatively safe way of being as accurate as possible. When I have a date of death or burial, without the other, one is listed with the day-month-year, the other, usually with just month-year. My question is, is there a flag of any kind to associate with a date that is further explained in the notes that would work with GEDCOM? SPEAKING of GEDCOM, has there been any movement on the new version that has been talked about for years? GEDCOM 6, I believe? Jared > Thanks to all the folk who have responded to my query. Some interesting > responses. > > Otto Jorgensen makes a strong and worthwhile point with regard to how > GEDCOM > and other people will deal with our data. It's most important that the > GEDCOM export understands what we are trying to do and people are in the > know, don't get confused as well. > > The system I have recently been using, putting the number of the quarter > in > brackets and then entering in the year e.g. (3) 1918 seems to be one of > only > a few ways people can express quarters in registration years in different > genealogy software I still use to publish data to the web, so I have > adopted > that one instead of the format I used to enter namely SepQtr1918 which > wouldn't go through. > > It seems that BK allows us to be flexible even though the red warning > notices come up. It would be good to have a distinction made in Brother's > Keeper between Invalid dates and Incomplete dates. Others on this forum > have made that point too. That way people would understand better why the > warning messages come up. > > Andrew Jackett of New Zealand. > > > Andrew Jackett of New Zealand. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Otto Jørgensenvia > Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 12:10 AM > To: Spicer Bob ; [email protected] > Subject: Re: [BK] How do I write month and year only? > > On Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:04:21 +0100, Spicer Bob via <[email protected]> > wrote: > >>I use the notation ???? if I only know the year, or put ?? for the day if >> I >>know the month. For GRO dates I use 99 for the day and the month number >> for >>the Quarter. for example 99061854 for Q2 1854. This translates to >>99-JUN-1854. It's my own notation, but I know what it means. In the notes >> I >>put the full GRO reference > > if you use 99 and other similar unlegal figurcombin ation you also make > error in gedcom for those who will import your data > > -- > Otto Jørgensen > http://home.online.no/~otjoerge/ > All email is checked by NIS2014 > > Remember - Use the Archives at > http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in > the subject and the body of the message > > Remember - Use the Archives at > http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in > the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------ Jared "Jed" Handspicker Usque Saeculis Vigilem

(For the avoidance of doubt, I use the ddmmyyyy format.) In message <[email protected]>, Jared Handspicker via <[email protected]> writes: >Sorry if this comes across as redundant. > >When I have quarters to enter, often with UK registration of birth dates, >I simply put the year, and expand on the quarter in notes. One of the Yes, that's what I do. Since it's almost exclusively UK BMD registrations where I only know the quarter, I put CIR if it's the first one (when I remember). The single-digit wildcard doesn't work: fourth quarter is months 10, 11, and 12, but entering __1_yyyy gets translated to January (and IIRR __0_yyyy doesn't work either). The shortform date entry - ddmmyy for (roughly) 20th century dates - doesn't work with lots of (possibly any?) wildcards: I can't enter ____60 and get __ ___ 1960, for example. Or ____6_. [] >What I have had trouble with, and again, ended up using explanatory notes, >instead, is when I have the right day and month, but the years "range." >Such as individuals known to be born on 05-Mar-191X (1912, 1914, 1917, or >1919, depending on the record). Listing 1912, and commenting in the notes >that the date could be any of the others, is a relatively safe way of >being as accurate as possible. Have you tried _ instead of X? [] >> It seems that BK allows us to be flexible even though the red warning >> notices come up. It would be good to have a distinction made in Brother's >> Keeper between Invalid dates and Incomplete dates. Others on this forum >> have made that point too. That way people would understand better why the >> warning messages come up. I'll add to the plea/request though (-: >> >> Andrew Jackett of New Zealand. >> >> >> Andrew Jackett of New Zealand. [] -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)[email protected]+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "I hate the guys that criticize the enterprise of other guys whose enterprise has made them rise above the guys who criticize!" (W9BRD, former editor of "How's DX?" column in "QST")