Should any volunteer feel disinclined to change their files I will quite happily fix them for them. Allan Raymond -----Original Message----- From: Peter Adams <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: 22 November 2004 20:56 Subject: Re: error in files Age at Death Hi Dave: I don't, as far as I am aware, have any files containing "unknown" death entries. Nevertheless, I am compelled to comment on this situation of the pre-1866 files. I believe that the position in the record of the death entry is well defined. That being so, all entries containing incorrect data can be fixed programmatically. If this can be done with a reasonable effort, I do not understand why volunteers are required to fix entries individually by hand. Apart from the amount of time involved, it is certain that additional errors will be introduced during the correction process itself. I would not be surprised to hear that volunteers decline to make these corrections and this would be a real loss to the freeBMD project. Can you or someone you know come up with a satisfactory solution? Regards, Peter Adams The MacPack On Mon, 22 Nov 2004, Dave Mayall wrote: > On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 10:26:47 -0000, you wrote: > > >You wrote: > >Hi > > > >A list of volunteers with Red warning files can be found on my Web Page at: > > > >http://www.btinternet.com/~allan_raymond/FreeBMD_Errorfiles.htm . > > > >I'm still working on some of the information. > > > >Could I please ask Co-ordinators to liase with their volunteers to correct > >the errant files? > > > > > >Regards > > > >Allan Raymond > > > >Hi, > >May I respectfully ask what is to be gained by altering 39 files in my case, > >I noticed another at 50, all done before Winbmd was altered to cope with no > >age at death. Adding a '?' > > or '*' was the option open to us at the time. Of course we will alter them > >if really necessary but they have lasted all this time, and I thought, > >perhaps wrongly, that we did not ask people to go back on matters of this > >kind. > > To the best of my knowledge, there was NEVER any official advice > offered to use "?" or "*" (or indeed "_" or "-") in this field. > > This is why we always suggest that if people encounter a difficult > situation, they should ask for advice, and NOT just come up with > something that seems to work OK. > > As to asking people to go back. The convention is that where we change > the rules, we don't ask people to go back. Where the rules have always > been the same, but the software didn't check quite strictly enough, we > will ask people to go back. > > -- > Dave Mayall > > > ==== FREEBMD-SYNDICATES Mailing List ==== > For those in -L mode, to unsubscribe from this mailing list please send the command UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message to - > [email protected] > > ============================== > OneWorldTree - The World's largest family tree. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13971/rd.ashx > > ==== FREEBMD-SYNDICATES Mailing List ==== Thank you Rootsweb for hosting the FreeBMD project and its mailing lists. See http://www.rootsweb.com/ ============================== Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx