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    Unknown spouse

    I am using Reunion 10. I am curious to know how other people add spouses and/or children when the first and last names are unknown. For instance I have a person who married and has children, but do not know the spouse’s name.

    #2
    It's not the "right way" but it works for me: I put the surname in [brackets] of the spouse so when they sort in the index they're together. Usually I have a first name but not the maiden name, but if nothing else I'll put [wife] or whatever for first name as a placeholder while doing more research.
    Bradley Jansen
    OS 10.15.2 on a MacBook Pro using Reunion 12 and ReunionTouch 1.0.9

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      #3
      Let me make myself a little clearer. For instance, I have people who have married, but I do not know their spouses first OR last names, just that they were married. So, therefore, I can’t put either first or last names in brackets.

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        #4
        I also don't use an 'approved' method, but one that works for me. If the person is a male, I usually know the last name, so I use that, and leave the first name blank, but use the prefix title 'Mr'.

        If the person is female, I use the prefix title 'Mrs' and the married surname. For the first name I use the given name if I know it, followed by the husband's given name in parenthesis. If I don't know her given name, I just use the husband's first name in parenthesis.

        This is for me, in my working database, and lets me see immediately in a list how the person fits in. My philosophy is that in your own database, you do what works best for you. Once you decide to publish, it is best to become acquainted with standard practices and adhere to them as much as possible.
        Researching DEBEE, FRERICHS/FREDERICKS, HAHNENENKAMP, JANCO, KOLK, PETRINI, WEISS

        http://familytreesandbranches.weebly.com
        http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.....com/~ilrootz/

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          #5
          Over lots of years, I have found the most common case is that I have the first name or nick name but no last name. I leave the last name field totally blank. Thus when I bring up the People list in the sidebar, all of the incomplete names show right at the top. This gives me incentive to work on these in order to keep the incomplete names list as short as possible. That's the carrot that I chase! (P.S. If I have no name at all, I enter Unknown as the first name just to make it appear at the start of the side bar people list.)
          Bob White, Mac Nut Since 1985, Reunion Nut Since 1991
          Jenanyan, Barnes, White, Duncan, Dunning, Luce, Hedge and more
          iMac/MacBookAir M1 - iPhonePro/iPadPro - Reunion13 & RT

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            #6
            In order to put someone in one of my family flies, I have to have at least part of a name and a reason to include that person, even, sometimes if it's just that they have the same surname and location as others I know more about. But usually they have some sort of relationship to at least one other in my file. And that's my "hook".

            Looking through my people list I see the following examples:
            1. (Bonney, Dr. J. B.: wife of) Jessie C. In this case, I don't know the wife's maiden name. This keeps Jessie with a family, not just hanging out there in the breeze.
            2. Bone, (Schultz, Susan: husband of) - I know the wife's first and maiden name as well as her married surname.
            3. Cocker, (father of Joseph) - I know the offspring and maybe siblings of an offspring. I want to have a parent so that I can link siblings together in one family.
            Can't say that I've been consistent in this. I do cast a wide net in my research, though I don't absorb other people's GEDCOMS. Some people are far less important to me than others and I may never devote any more time to them. But someone else's tree may overlap with mine, and one or both of us might benefit from these connections.

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              #7
              If I know that a person existed but I don't either their first or last name, I generally enter Unknown or Unk for both the first and last name. If I know one or the other, then I just enter Unknown or Unk for the one that I don't know.

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                #8
                Originally posted by edohmann View Post
                If I know that a person existed but I don't either their first or last name, I generally enter Unknown or Unk for both the first and last name. If I know one or the other, then I just enter Unknown or Unk for the one that I don't know.
                I have decided to use your suggestion. Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by brcox1 View Post
                  I am using Reunion 10. I am curious to know how other people add spouses and/or children when the first and last names are unknown. For instance I have a person who married and has children, but do not know the spouse’s name.
                  Enter NN in first name field and/or NN in family name field. If both are missing it will read NN NN. The meaning of NN equals Nomen nominandum or "not known". This abbreviation is understood by genealogist in all countries and needs no translation.
                  SauerRL@me.com • info@reunion-de.de
                  Web: http://www.schevenhuette.com
                  Web: http://www.reunion-de.de

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                    #10
                    I have come across several different scenarios for this. What I add depends on what information is available, eg. a name. Generally, if there is no first or last name, I don’t add the person at all, even if it does mean a man has children but no woman.

                    a) the known woman has a husband and they have children
                    - known children bearing the last name of the father: then I use '?' for the first name of the father as an "easy" flag; I don’t use ’n.n.' - see note 2
                    - there are children but with no last names - I treat as e) below
                    - there are children with no names - I don’t add and treat like c)

                    b) the known man has a wife but I don’t have the maiden name yet: I do similar to what Bradley is doing, and put the last name of the man between parentheses

                    c) the known woman has a relationship, but I have no name or ’start’ date, and there are no children: I don’t add any information, not even an N.N. place-holder. (if there is offspring, it would be found, otherwise it is a dead-end anyway). see note 1

                    d) the known woman has children by an unknown man:
                    - if the woman has no other relationships, one can just add the children;
                    - otherwise, I add a person ’n.n.’, order the relationships, add the children, and delete the ’n.n.’ person but _not_ the family record
                    - unknown relationships before a known relationship are placed before this; unknown relationships after a divorce/death are placed after
                    - extra-marital relationships resulting in children are placed after the concurrent marital relationship (even if the extra-marital child is born first, unless it was conceived before the marriage)

                    e) the known woman has children with a not-entirely unknown man (1 instance): in this case, I have (like Reiner) and N. N. person with extensive notes on who this may be


                    Note 1: For all people living, or those with unconfirmed death dates, or those who were identified upon death as not having been unwed, I use a flag 'Continue' to signal that information is incomplete. So, they may have had a relationship.

                    Note 2: ’n.n.’ as a first name I reserve for stillborn children unless they are named. This makes for uniformity: there are hundreds of these in my tree by now. Should the need arise, it is easy to make a change/replace in the GEDCOM export file to remove these first names.


                    NN has two meanings, just to be sure, and they don’t mean necessarily the same:
                    Nomen Nominadum - 'to be named', a person to be named at a later date, for people for whom there is, or will be, information but it has to be uncovered - like a) and b) above
                    Nomen Nescio - name unknown, for people who have no name or will not have a name - such as the father of the children of a single mother in many/most cases

                    There are a handful of people in my tree ( a) and b) ) for whom the information is not yet complete. I have resisted the urge to use NN as the father of the children of single mothers, since it would add hundreds of people to my tree without any hope of completing the information.


                    Just how I roll with it.
                    --
                    Eric Van Beest
                    Spring, TX

                    Researching: Van Beest, Feijen, Van Herk

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                      #11
                      What I do is similar to some of the above:
                      1. If I know the husband's first and last names, for example: John DOE, but I know neither of the wife's names then I put [DOE, wife of John], Female.
                      2. If I know the wife's first and last names, for example, Mary ROE, but I know neither of the husband's name then I put [ROE, husband of Mary], Male
                      In all instances where I don't know a man's first name, whether or not I know the surname, I use Male for the first name. And Female for women whether or not I know the surname. I find these easy to track.
                      Sara Bradley Mason
                      kywiaz at gmail dot com

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                        #12
                        The system I use could easily be changed to the "NN NN" system, which looks interesting. What I currently do is use "UNKNOWN" for all unknown surnames. Unknown first names are either FNU Male or FNU Female.

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