Wrong Date

Mary Mormile

when entering data for my sister, i had a typo in her birth date. i thought that by editing the date it would be fixed but where the id number is, the wrong date still appears. how do i fix this?

Thanks,

Mary Mormile

Gail Swihart Watson

Go to the person page for your sister, look in the Vitals section, look for birth, and click the pencil to edit.

Wayland K Adams

Hi Mary - Welcome to FamilySearch Community and asking your question about dates. When you enter a date, you will see dates below in standard format. Usually, you just pick the standard format. I suspect if you edit the birth date for your sister, there will be two different dates displayed. You can just edit it again and then pick from the standard dates listed. Here is a link to more detailed instructions.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-change-vital-information-in-family-tree

Mary Mormile

Thank you for your help, I clicked on standardized date and it worked.

Gordon Collett

Since a question about this date editing got posted two days a row from two different people, I'm going to go into a little detail in case either of the posters are wondering about this at first strange looking behavior in Family Tree.

In Family Tree, all dates and all places are entered twice by us users. We enter a free-form date and then link it to a "standard" or reference value. The free-form date gives us the ability to enter accurate data. The reference date gives us the ability to enter precise data. These are not the same. This ability is a powerful tool that is not always needed, particularly with dates, but is very useful when it is.

When entering dates and places, it is always important to proof-read both the user entered free-form data and the linked "standard" or reference value to make sure both are correct. It is most important when editing data because editing the free-form date does not always automatically edit the reference date.

Here is a simple example of how nicely this works as long as one is paying attention.

Say I have the only birth source for a relative and it clearly says he was born 29 February 1923, a non-leap year. I can either accurately enter his birth date as recorded or make a guess that it was either February 28 or March 1, precisely enter one of those dates, and have a 50% chance of being wrong. However, there is no reference value for February 29 of that year. But I can still enter that date and link it to either February 28 or March 1 by first entering and selecting the reference value then editing the date to be what the record says like this:

First type in the reference value you want to use and choose the version of it with the calendar icon from the drop down menu:

This enters both the free-form date and the reference date. Since they are the same we are only shown one value:

Now edit the date to put in what the record actually says and this time click on the red text that matches what was typed in and does not have a calendar icon:

This preserves the free-form date and the previously linked reference:

If you also wanted to update the linked reference standard, you can now click on it to open a separate drop down menu and choose a new linked value if one is available.

This great feature of Family Tree allows us to add rich historical value to dates and place when information beyond the usual Day-Month-Year is available. It lets us enter dates such as:

• Tuesday, 18 June 1845
• Easter, 5 April 1945
• 14. Dominica post Trinitas [8 August] 1725
• 23 February 1824/25

There are a few places in Family Tree where only the "standard" reference value is displayed instead of the user entered date. Two of these are the top banner of the person page, as you discovered, and in the timeline.