Much as I hate to disagree with Jane, but FH does create that 1 DEAT Y format. It is part of the GEDCOM specification Pages 31 & 32 that requires the 'Y', if there is no DATE or PLAC field, to prevent the DEAT fact from being pruned. It simply needs a Death Event to be added without any details, or the details to be later deleted leaving just a blank Death Event. However, I know of no way of detecting the 'Y' using a Query, other than by testing that all subsidiary fields are empty. This is what the Query does referred to by Andrew Braid. A more specific link is: http://www.fhug.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=11130#p52060 Regards, Mike Tate -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jane Taubman Sent: 21 April 2014 09:51 To: family-historian-users Subject: Re: [FHU] Phantom deaths. How to prevent/remove? On 21 April 2014 07:44, Dave Foster <[email protected]> wrote: > > Looking further, I find that I have over 1000 of these. > Family Historian will not have put those in so I suspect they have come from an earlier program you have used. On you query Columns tab add a column for Death and then on the Rows tab a column to do the death date file contains text 'Y' Then just select the Death column on the results and press the delete key. -- Jane. Jane Taubman | www.rjt.org.uk | www.taubman.org.uk |www.fhug.org.uk ------------------------------- 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

Mike, Your query is very useful, thanks. However I think there is one scenario it doesn't cover: In a very small number of cases I have an event with no data in subsidiary fields but there is a Source citation. Admittedly it was an oversight that no note or 'before...' date had been entered. It might be safest if the query could check for the existence of any Source citation. If someone is using the query to do a global delete of a large number of 'empty' deaths, for example, they would not want to delete a death event for which they did have a Source. Lorna On 21/04/2014 11:24, Beryl & Mike Tate wrote: > It simply needs a Death Event to be added without any details, or the details to be later deleted leaving just a blank Death Event. > > However, I know of no way of detecting the 'Y' using a Query, other than by testing that all subsidiary fields are empty. > This is what the Query does referred to by Andrew Braid. > A more specific link is: > http://www.fhug.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=11130#p52060

Lorna, You are correct, but to be pedantic there are several other cases that need to be covered too. =IsTrue(%FACT.SOUR% = "") for Source Citation and most associated fields =IsTrue(%FACT.SOUR2% = "") for Note attached to Citation =IsTrue(%FACT.OBJE% = "") for Multimedia attached to Citation =IsTrue(%FACT.TYPE% = "") for Fact Descriptor =IsTrue(%FACT.PHON% = "") for Fact Phone No =IsTrue(%FACT._EMAIL % = "") for Fact E-mail Addr =IsTrue(%FACT._WEB% = "") for Fact Website =IsTrue(%FACT.AGNC% = "") for Fact Responsible Agency =IsTrue(%FACT.OBJE2% = "") for Fact Local Multimedia =IsTrue(%FACT.NOTE% = "") for Fact linked Note Record =IsTrue(%FACT.SENT% = "") for Fact custom Sentence I have added all these to the KB posting. Perhaps a KB Download Fact Query is worth adding. Regards, Mike Tate -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lorna Craig Sent: 21 April 2014 14:58 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [FHU] Phantom deaths. How to prevent/remove? Mike, Your query is very useful, thanks. However I think there is one scenario it doesn't cover: In a very small number of cases I have an event with no data in subsidiary fields but there is a Source citation. Admittedly it was an oversight that no note or 'before...' date had been entered. It might be safest if the query could check for the existence of any Source citation. If someone is using the query to do a global delete of a large number of 'empty' deaths, for example, they would not want to delete a death event for which they did have a Source. Lorna On 21/04/2014 11:24, Beryl & Mike Tate wrote: > It simply needs a Death Event to be added without any details, or the details to be later deleted leaving just a blank Death Event. > > However, I know of no way of detecting the 'Y' using a Query, other than by testing that all subsidiary fields are empty. > This is what the Query does referred to by Andrew Braid. > A more specific link is: > http://www.fhug.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=11130#p52060