Problems Report in RootsMagic for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

For Saturday Night Genealogy Fun last night, Randy Seaver suggested doing a genealogy software problems report.  At first I thought, Nope, not doing it.  I'm sure it will turn up dozens and dozens of problems that I'm not prepared to deal with right now.  But then I relented and made the report.  Whew!  Only six problems.  (But then there are only 529 people in my program.)

I'm still using RootsMagic 7.  I clicked on "Tools" then "Problem Search > Problem List."  I was able to check or uncheck 10 options.  I left all of them checked.  (From Randy's post I see that RM 9 has an extensive list which would be more helpful.)

These are the problems RootsMagic searched for.

• Individuals without sex entered
• Proper order of events
• Birth before parents' marriage
• Birth before parent's birth
• Birth after father's death
• Birth after mother's death
• Age at death should be less than 102
• Age at marriage should be between 14 and 70
• Father's age should be between 14 and 70
• Mother's age should be between 14 and 50

These are the problems RM indicated and my responses to the problems.

Bickerstaff, Margie J.   Parents married after person's birth
Yes, a problem.  Margie is one of my mother's cousins.  All of her information comes from her obituary.  It doesn't help that I don't have an exact date for her parents' marriage.  More research is needed for this family.   For now I'll make a note on her page.

Doyle, William   Parents married after person's birth
Definitely a problem!  William is my paternal great-grandfather, the son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Laws) Doyle who, GRO records tell me, were married on November 14, 1863.  His birth date of March 3, 1863, comes from family records (which have been notoriously inaccurate.)  Sadly, I have been unable to find a U.K. birth record of any kind-- not a civil record or a church baptismal record.  I thought it could be possible that he was the son of his father and his father's first wife, Jane Barron, but nothing turned up in my searches in that direction.  I turned away from researching the Doyle line for a while because of this problem.

Froman, Catherine   Born after father's death
Not a problem.  Catherine's father, John Froman, died when Catherine's mother was pregnant.  John died in December, 1871, and Catherine was born in January, 1872

Hardy, Robert   Parents married after person's birth
Yes, a problem.  Robert is my great-grandmother's sister's son.  His birth information comes from the 1900 U.S. Census.   I've done little research on this family but I believe county records will show an accurate birth date.  County records may also give a marriage record (and date) for his parents.  I'll make a note in his person page and look for the information sometime in the future

For these two infants, their sex was not indicated on records and I have no way to learn it for either.
Kitch, Infant   Unknown sex
Meinzen, Stillborn Infant   Unknown sex

Thanks for suggesting this fun activity, Randy.  It's probably a good idea to do this regularly, and especially after adding more individuals to RootsMagic.

—Nancy.

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