Hi - It is my understanding that an unknown surname is represented by [—?—], or if this does not print correctly in this e-mail message, it would be a left square bracket, em dash, question mark, em dash, right square bracket. The em dash is no problem because the printer code works fine in BK. It does not show up properly in the database on screen, but prints properly. However, the square brackets are a problem in BK. No matter what I do they will not print. Is there a solution? Thanks. Carole

Carole, When I don't know a given person's name, I simply give the name as UNKNOWN. Yes, I end up with lots of UNKNOWNs. Sometimes the given name will be known, then I type that name, Jane for example, and use UNKNOWN for the maiden surname. When it is a male, the surname may be known, but not the given name, then I would have UNKNOWN JONES or unknown JONES. A search might benefit by the use of a Question Mark. But other than that, I don't know why you want a symbol? Kay Chestnut ----- Original Message ----- From: Carole Edwards Caruso To: BK@rootsweb.com Sent: 2012-04-17 03:00 Subject: [BK] Surname Unknown Hi - It is my understanding that an unknown surname is represented by [?], or if this does not print correctly in this e-mail message, it would be a left square bracket, em dash, question mark, em dash, right square bracket. The em dash is no problem because the printer code works fine in BK. It does not show up properly in the database on screen, but prints properly. However, the square brackets are a problem in BK. No matter what I do they will not print. Is there a solution? Thanks. Carole Remember - Use the Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search ------------------------------- 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

Hi, Square brackets are used to surround surnames composed of two or more names that are not joined by a dash. For example you have someone with a surname of Jones Smith and you want to sort by the surname Jones, you use square bracquets: [Jones Smith]. These square bacquets do not print when used in the Name field. Personnaly, I replace an unknown name with an N followed by three dots: N...; dots print and are also used in sorting. Gilles Paquette Le 2012-04-17 18:00, Carole Edwards Caruso a écrit : > Hi - It is my understanding that an unknown surname is represented by [—?—], or if this does not print correctly in this e-mail message, it would be a left square bracket, em dash, question mark, em dash, right square bracket. The em dash is no problem because the printer code works fine in BK. It does not show up properly in the database on screen, but prints properly. However, the square brackets are a problem in BK. No matter what I do they will not print. > > Is there a solution? > > Thanks. > > Carole > > Remember - Use the Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search > ------------------------------- > 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 >