Did you see the blog post, End of the Year Tune Up for Your Family Tree? This post discusses how to identify problems with genealogy data using Family Tree Maker.

Like FamilyTree Maker, RootsMagic 8 includes the ability to create reports listing individuals with identified problems.

• Individuals without sex entered
• Proper Order of Events
• Birth before parent’s marriage
• Age at death should be less than ____ (default is 100)
• Age at marriage should be between _____ and _____ (default is between 14 and 70)
• Father’s age should be between _____ and _____ (default is between 14 and 70)
• Mother’s age should be between _____ and _____ (default is between 14 and 50)
• Birth before parent’s birth
• Birth after father’s death
• Birth after mother’s death

The program also uses a red exclamation mark icon for individuals with any of the above problems. The appears to the right of their name on the family or pedigree screens.

Clicking on the exclamation mark, one can open the ‘Problem List’ window to get details on the problem.

To figure out where I made my mistake, I opened Robert Thompson. I have his birth date recorded as ‘about 1839’ with a 1940 census record as the source. The details for the 1940 census record shows a family composed of Robert Thompson age 51 (father), Ruby Thompson, age 31 (mother) and Robert Thompson, age 1. In this case, it looks like I made a typing error and that the birth should be abt 1939.

After I correct the birthdate and close the individual window, the red exclamation mark disappears from Robert Thompson (#13007)

Since migrating to RM8, I’ve just been fixing the problems as I stumble across them while researching my tree. However, DiAnn Iamarino suggests a more proactive approach in her blog post, End of the Year Tune Up for Your Family Tree. This proactive approach requires me to create lists of problems in my database and then work my way down the list to fix the problems.

To create a list of problems, I need to use the command palette. The icon for the command palette is in the upper right corner of my RootsMagic 8 screen.

When I click on the command palette icon, a window opens showing a list of various commands. Scrolling down the list, I find Problem List.

Clicking on the Problem List command opens the Problem Options window.

If desired, I could place a check mark by several problems (or all problems) and create a report. However, I will find it easier if I only tackle one problem at a time. To start with, I’m going to tackle the problem I had with Robert Thompson — his birth date was prior to the birth date of his parents. Clicking on OK causes RootsMagic 8 to search my database and produce a list.

If I click the ‘Edit Person’ button, a window opens showing that individual. When I look at Jennie Burke’s information, I find that I have her mother’s Find a Grave record cited for Jennie’s birth and death’. The dates, I have recorded for Jennie match the dates copied into the details for the citaiton.

Thus, I need to check her parents to see if I have their birth dates correct. Since I can’t get to the parents of Jennie Burke without closing the Problem list, I have several choices

• Close the problem list, locate Jennie Burk in my file and resolve the problem. Then, go back and re-create the problem list.
• Print the list and work my way thru the printed list to correct the problems
• Add fixing the issue with Jenni’s birthdate to my task list, work my way down the list of problems to add each one to my task list. Then I can use the task list as a guide to work my way thru these problems.

If I click on the Add to Task List button, the ADD TASK window opens.

I’ll be honest. I am not going to use the Add to Task List button. For me, the task list sounds like a great tool, but in reality, I don’t refer back to my list of tasks and update it when a task is completed. I also don’t look back at this list to see what I should be doing. Thus, adding these problems to a task list just postpones fixing the problem.

Since I may need to access the family screen to identify and/or fix these problems, I’m going to print my list and work my way thru the printed list. I am also going to work with one problem type at a time.

Now, I have another goal to complete yet this year: a tune-up of my RootsMagic database.