7 replies to this topic

[Roberta_R]

I probably did something strange, but I have several Families that have a blank field for the child's name with the gender field filled out. Can't figure out how the heck to get rid of the unnamed children. I've tried right clicking and choosing edit or delete but the program says to highlight the person before editing or deleting. I've never had this happen before and I've had Rootsmagic for years. Can't recreate what I did since I don't know how it happened. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I thought of just doing a restore from a backup, but would prefer not to have to do that, if possible.

[kbens0n]

Typically, one would right-click on the child and choose Unlink->from Parents

[Alfred]

If that doesn't work, go to the Files menu then Database tools and run them in the order listed.

[TomH]

If that doesn't work, go to the Files menu then Database tools and run them in the order listed.

Should run Database tools first. A corrupted table index might result in nameless persons.

[Roberta_R]

The database tools seemed to do the trick. Never had to use that before. Thanks for the help.

[zhangrau]

I have sometimes resorted to a more brute-force method. When an unnamed person is linked as a child, spouse or parent, this technique WILL work. Click on the person, and you will be asked to add a person. I usually enter a given name of "aa" and surname of "bb" (or some other convenient pair of letters - it really doesn't matter.) Now I can delete the previously unnamed person, and that solves my problem. As a worry-wart, I run the Database Tools almost every time I'm entering and/or modifying data. Better safe than sorry....

[Sonapm]

Thank you for these suggestions. I've never thought to run the Database Tools but I did today. One of the tools removed a blank "child" from a family that I had fretted about for a long time today. On the other hand, the Index still showed a person named "[UNKNOWN], [Unknown]-180628128". When I selected it to Edit, it said the last Edit was 30 Dec 1899. I can't delete the record, nor can I change the Sex, although I was able to change the given names and surname.

[Renee Zamora]

See if a drag n drop into a new blank database will remove them.