Cannot add no-name people

[Stephen Hill]

Re: Cannot add no-name people

What do FNU, LNU, IMO, stand for?" Sorry I'm always a little slow on the uptake. I understand, NN, NK - Not (Name) Known, NU - which is what I use.

Cheers

Steve Hill

[Michael Talibard]

Re: Cannot add no-name people

FNU - first name unknown; LNU - last name unknown; IMO in my opinion.

[Stephen Hill]

Re: Cannot add no-name people

Thanks Michael

[lmarker]

Re: Cannot add no-name people

Getting back to Lilly's original post ...

The quickest work around I've found is to type a space, and immediately delete it, and then click on "Done" - no need to go back until extra info is found (I prefer the default "UNKNOWN" to be shown). That said, I rarely use it - as there is usually some info to enter immediately e.g. Cause of death : "wife = W in xxxx census"

Thank you for this hint! I tried it and it works. I'm not sure why the flexibility to add people without a name was taken away, but I do like this as a work around.

[lmarker]

Re: Cannot add no-name people

I know you're just asking for a simple way to add a place keeper, but I find your post also invites a little philosophical discussion.

My thought is that a completely blank record implies that there is absolutely nothing known about that person. But as Bob says, there is a good chance something about the name of one of the parents is known if you know the names of the children. And if that insight is known, then IMO it should be documented... it's the first piece of data on that person, and is something that invites hanging on additional information.

As an example, for over 10 years in my database, the father of my G-Grandfather James Kenyon and his brother John was listed as FNU Kenyon. The only things I knew about him was that his last name was probably Kenyon and that he probably lived in New York at the same time James was born, and those data points were in my database for my continued consideration.

I finally tracked him down and his first name became known, so that was a data element I was able to add, and his entry finally became Isaac Kenyon. And I was able to change his wife's name from FNU LNU to Esther LNU, until I was able to change it to Esther Ball. Esther was FNU LNU for so long because even though I didn't know her name, I knew she had existed and I knew she too lived in New York.

The point of all this is if I had left his record blank, for me it would be less compelling to push me to further research... that "FNU" was intensely irritating. More importantly, I wouldn't have been documenting the tiny bit I did know, for myself or anyone who inherits my research.

My apologies for indulging in a bit of philosophical meandering.

There are articles written by people who spent numerous, fruitless years searching for their elusive ancestors who only name they found was as a last name of Lnu. I suggest that if you do this for your own purposes, it is a good idea not to share this. Even putting a tag of Unk for Unknown will cause someone to search for their ggg uncle Unk sometime in the future.