This may be more of a report an error, but I am not sure how to do that yet.
The following Personal Identification Number H4TT-3M9, has only a ? for a name. There is absolutely no other details for the individual. It says Family Search made the latest change in 2016.
Hopefully, this can be corrected.
Regards,
Barbara Brown
Best Answers
-
Barbara
I am just another 'lowly' User/Patron ...
Just so that you are aware ...
The "?" (ie. "Question Mark"); as, an individual's/person's "Name", in "Family Tree", of 'FamilySearch', is NOT an indication of an "Error" (ie. a "Bug"), in the "System".
Here is a "Knowledge Article" in 'FamilySearch':
Why does a person's name have a question mark in Family Tree?
Where it states:
Quote
------------------
On 27 June 2016, our systems added a question mark to the name field of any person whose first and last names were blank. You can change a question mark to the correct name if you know it. Otherwise, leave it as a placeholder until you discover the correct name.
Think twice before you delete
Be careful about deleting any relationships where one person is related to another person whose name is represented by a question mark. The question mark could be the result of a merge or some other action that, for now, has removed the name. In time, you or another patron may be able to supply the missing information.
------------------
I hope this helps, somewhat; and, gives you some additional perspective.
Brett
1 -
It is not uncommon to find a question mark person as a parent in some baptisms. Whether this occurred because the data entry system at that time required two parents to be attached, or perhaps the person who entered the data felt it was necessary, the result is the same. A person existed, but none of their vitals are known. @Brett . is quite right that you should take care when merging, because although it might be the case that this person is the same as the one you are merging with, because there are no vitals, you cannot prove that they are not someone else except by exclusion, i.e. investigating and disproving all other possibilites., and that might be beyond your scope.
0
Answers
-
One way to make the record ? disappear is to merge it with, Nancy Campbell Stone, the spouse of Brice Henderson Shepherd
It would be a simple merge, since there is no information in the record and it is not attached to any other family members.
Here is an Article from the Help Center about merging records if you decide to do that.
We hope this helps.
1 -
Thank you for your suggestion. I am only wondering if some thinks Brice may have had a second wife. I made the merge.
Regards,
Barbara Brown
0 -
Thank you for your input.
0 -
The vast majority of records with ? for a parent, usually the mother, are from the IGI where it was possible to have the mother's name blank. In the initial import into Family Tree, that routine did not allow a blank name so they put in a ?.
You can generally find the original source of the import either in 1) the Community Contributed IGI which are now part of the Historical Records databases. There will always be an associated source which will also be lacking the name on someone in the family with this kind of label:
or 2) in the Patron Contributed IGI which is now called just the IGI and is found under the Genealogies tab.
Looking through the Change Logs to find the original source of the ? you found, I find this record in the IGI; https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:97GS-P9R Notice that the ID number for the John R Shepherd is the same as for the John R Shephard someone merged into John Riley Shepherd on July 26, 2021.
A big part of our work here in Family Tree is to find these little bits and pieces of families that were in the IGI, figure out who they really are, and properly merge them.
These ? people do have persistent relationship connections to the people they represent that can be seen on the ordinance page so should never be detached or removed from a family. They need to be identified and properly merged.
0