How to add stillborn infants to the Tree?

Paul W

I just found a stillborn child had been added to one of the profiles I am following on the tree. I had not encountered this before, so decided to look for any FamilySearch guidance on the matter. This is the link to the article on the subject:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-add-stillborn-or-miscarried-infants-in-family-tree

I am a bit dubious about this advice, however:

"If you do not know either the father’s or mother’s last name, enter a question mark (?) as the child’s first name. Leave the last name blank."

This conflicts with the instruction not to use invalid characters in a (name) field, as illustrated when I tested the suggestion:

Perhaps the article should be reviewed / revised, although I accept an alternative input would be difficult to suggest as, elsewhere, I believe "Unknown" and "Infant" inputs are not recommended. The same probably applies to "Unnamed", which is the only thing that comes to my mind in these specific circumstances ("If you do not know either the father’s or mother’s last name…")

maryellenstevensbarnes1

The advice If you do not know either the father’s or mother’s last name, enter a question mark (?) as the child’s first name. Leave the last name blankcomes from the Web Indexing instructions circa 2012-2023 and so far as I know there's been no alternative when both father & mother surnames are unknown. My personal thought is that we could use an apostrophe or a period in place of the question mark as we do with some abbreviations. I agree with Paul W that "Unknown" could be used for a surname and I think it would be appropriate to type in "Unnamed" for the Given Name as there were many unnamed children born during the 18th-20th centuries when some children were not given a name before their first year of infancy others who were simply called "Baby" by family and friends. Baby seems very appropriate to me as a mother and much more personal than the politically correct "Infant".

Áine Ní Donnghaile

The instructions regarding unknown names are quite specific in this article:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/enter-a-person-with-an-unknown-name

For an unnamed child or whose name you do not know:
Unknown child's name

Leave the first name field blank, and then enter the father's last name. Select the sex if known.

dlmelville

Another suggestion for stillbirths would be to "Add Event" in EVENTS section of the individual profile (using the pull down menu "Stillborn").

Gordon Collett

Ignoring all past standards and rules and looking at what the help center article is trying to address and what Family Tree allows you to do, I would say you wouldn't create a profile for the stillborn child in this situation but rather just note the event either as a custom event under the parents or as a note. That would give a profile that looks like this:

Since a profile requires at minimum either a first or last name to create it and we are not to use random characters or placeholders like ., ?, unknown, or baby, that is all we can do.

That help center article needs to be updated. Question marks for names have been banned for a number of years now.

I know the first objection to this will be that this does not really put the infant into a family. But it documents the known information about the family just as completely so there really is no difference. (And from an ordinance standpoint, marking the child as stillborn, as should be done except for a limited number of countries, marks all ordinances as not needed.)

dlmelville

I prefer my suggested entry using the Stillborn pull-down menu in Events rather than creating a Custom Event. Adding the stillbirth to the family with its own profile has the advantage of being documented on any reports (ie. Family Group Record) that get generated.

Gordon Collett

If you can't create a profile because you don't have any first or last name, then you can't use the Stillborn event because you don't have a profile to put it on. You don't use that on a parent's profile because that would mark the father or mother as stillborn, not the child. And according to this help center article, place holders for parts of a name are not to be used: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/enter-a-person-with-an-unknown-name

My suggestion is analogous to this recommendation in the article: "If you know something other than the name about the father, such as a birthplace or occupation, do not create a profile for the father, but add what you know about him to a note or story that is attached to the mother or one of his children."

If you have at least a first or last name and so can create a profile then, as I mentioned in my last sentence in my previous post, you would usually, but not always, use the Stillborn event on the child's profile.