Heredis design philosopy for partial names

[dmossfritch]

Any Heredis representative:

I've read the Heredis Help document, however that information only discusses where to type in names - given and surname. There is no mention in the document of how to record an ancestor when only part of the ancestor's name known.

What is the underlying design philosophy of Heredis when the user enters a partial name for an ancestor? When only a partial name (either no given name or no surname) is known (not unusual in Canada or the USA during the 1600s and 1700s), how will Heredis record and display those partial names in the Person List, when doing research using the Search tab, or when outputting family data on reports and charts?

Should the unknown portion of an ancestor's name be left blank? Or, should some characters be added in place of the missing name, such as 'unknown', '(--?--)', '????', or some other characters?

[mike-en]

The root of the internal file is the Name
Thus every person entered MUST have at least a name , whatever it is

[dmossfritch]

The root of the internal file is the Name
Thus every person entered MUST have at least a name , whatever it is

Thank you Mike. Unfortunately your answer does not really answer the question, so please allow me an example.

For example, a distant cousin gave birth in 1910 rural Michigan, USA to a baby boy. The child died the same day. The child was never named, with the cemetery headstone reading "Baby Anderson". Anderson is obviously the surname. However, this child has no given name as 'Baby' is obviously not a name. So, is the given name left blank? Or, should 'unknown' or some other description be added in the given name field? Despite whether left blank or 'place holder text' is used in the given name field, how does Heredis use that 'no given name' information in the Person List, on the Search tab, or in reports and charts?

The same unknown name can occur with surnames. For example, if I have a 'Mabel Parlee' in the 1851 Canadian census for New Brunswick, Canada, her 'married name' (surname) is 'Parlee". However, until I locate a marriage record I cannot identify her 'maiden name'. When recording her information, do I leave the surname field blank, add 'unknown', or some other 'place holder text' to the surname field? Again, how does Heredis respond (Person List, Search tab, reports, and charts) when her 'maiden name' is unknown?

[mike-en]

The root of the internal file is the Name

I meant to say "Surname" ...
If none is known, you will have to invent one, whatever is your choice
If No "Given name" is known, Heredis does not mind ...

[dmossfritch]

Interesting Mike. Thanks. Based upon your brief comment I did a bit of testing, creating as small GEDCOM and importing that GEDCOM to Heredis 2014. The GEDCOM contained the following names:
1 NAME Jane //
1 NAME /Smith/
1 NAME Joyce /[--?--]/
1 NAME unknown /Brown/

Please note that Jane // has no surname. Upon importing to Heredis 2014, the name became:
Jane ? - No Name

The other three names remained unchanged during the import. Apparently Heredis 2014 contains a code routine that adds "? - No Name" if a name being imported from a GEDCOM does not contain a surname.

I also attempted to add a new person without a surname, yet Heredis 2014 would not allow such a person, even when I used a blank character. Apparently some non-blank character must be used when entering a surname, meaning the user should have a basic plan for entering people for whom no surname is yet known (i.e. unknown, [--?--], or some other set of characters designating 'unknown surname').

Now, all I need is to become use to the "given name surname" sort of the Person list, whether the full list or a filtered list.

[mike-en]

"no name" is not too bad a choice ? It's unique enough for sorting ans filtering ...

[dmossfritch]

"no name" is not too bad a choice ? It's unique enough for sorting ans filtering ...

Ah, but the surname following import of the GEDCOM was not "no name" Mike. The software routine adds " ? - No Name", an entirely different text string.

Anyway, thanks for the comments. I have been examining the Search tab features. Having spent nearly 30 years working with and writing user and developer documentation for software during alpha and beta development has helped with my examination of those features. Nice. However, I still believe the user deserves some documentation describing the process flow of the use of the Search tab, especially writing research notes, adding sources, and attaching media, along with using the research report.