Reference Centre, Computer Tutorials
How to Remove or Correct Unwanted "Unknown" Individuals (PAF)
If you've ever looked at your family file and spotted a mysterious "unknown" person listed as a spouse, you're definitely not alone — it happens to just about everyone who uses a genealogical database storage program, including PAF! The good news is that it's easy to fix, and with a few simple steps, you can correct your records and prevent it from happening again. Whether you're new to the program or have been using it for years, this tutorial will walk you through exactly what to do — so let's get started!
For this tutorial we are going to look at the family of William Lashbrook of Northlew, Devon, England. But, for those of you who are following along with your own accidental "unknown" spouse, navigate to that family in your PAF program and be sure to have them showing in the "Family" view.
There are two ways in which an unwanted "Unknown" individual can be accidentally added to a family:
- by accidentally selecting "Unknown" from the "Add Spouse" menu, and,
- by accidentally selecting "Add New Individual" from the "Add Spouse" menu and entering the name as "Unknown".
In the first case the "Unknown" individual will NOT have a RIN number assigned to him or her.
In the second case the "Unknown" individual WILL HAVE a RIN number assigned to him or her.
First, let's look at all of the "Marriages" associated with the affected spouse - in our case, William Lashbrook. You will see in this image that he is in the primary position and above his field is the "Other Mariages" button. Click on that button to get a listing of all of the marriages associated with that person. In this image, you will see that there are three marriages tied to William Lashbrook. The first family showing for William Lashbrook has an unknown spouse but has a child in the family. We will deal with this marriage last. In the "Other Marriages" window double click on the second unknown spouse to navigate to that marriage and family.
Removing an Unwanted "Unknown" Spouse with No Children in the Marriage
In this image, you will see the family of William Lashbrook showing an unknown spouse but with no children in the family. This is the marriage and unknown spouse that you should eliminate first as it is a very straight forward process. Check in the bottom right-hand corner of the window to see if your unknown person has a RIN number - see highlighted area. If so, write it down as you will need it to delete that unknown person from the database. There is no RIN number for this Unknown individual so this person will be immediately deleted from the PAF program and no further deletion will be necessary. Also write down the MRIN number to the right of it. In this case it is MRIN 7248. You will need this number when you verify that the marriage has been permanently deleted from your PAF database.
Double click in the marriage field to open the "Edit Marriage" window and click on the "DELETE" button, highlighted in yellow on this image. Clicking DELETE will pop open another small window - see image below - that indicates that clicking on the OK button will remove the marriage from the PAF database and unlink the unknown spouse and any children from the family. These two changes happen instanteously as soon as you click the OK button and cannot be undone.
Verify that the eliminated marriage and unwanted unknown spouse has been removed from the PAF database. Go back and click on the "Other Marriages" button. You will see in this image that the list of marriages is now reduced and only 1 unknown spouse remains. That person is now highlighted with the PAF blue selector and the MRIN number in the bottom right-hand corner has now changed. You can also verify that the unwanted spouse has been deleted by clicking on the Search menu and select "Marriage List" - see the image below. Put the MRIN number you recorded into the search bar at the top of that window and PAF will automatically search for the number and show you either the last available number or that the number is now missing from the search results.
If your unwanted "Unknown" individual DOES NOT HAVE a RIN number assigned, then as soon as you delete the marriage this individual will be permanently removed from your PAF program.
If your unwanted "Unknown" individual DOES HAVE a RIN number assigned, then you will have to manually delete that individual from your PAF database.
To eliminate the other unwanted "Unknown" spouse or spouses simply repeat the above steps.
Removing an Unwanted "Unknown" Spouse WITH Children in the Marriage
The process for removing the unwanted "Unknown" spouse is exactly the same as the steps laid out in the above section. But, you must first record the RIN numbers of each of the children in the family as they will be automatically unlinked from the remaining spouse and will have to be re-linked to the correct marriage. See the image below where the child is selected with the PAF blue selector and the RIN number in the bottom right-hand corner has been highlighted with yellow.
Correcting an Unwanted "Unknown" Spouse
For future knowledge, if you accidentally add an unknown spouse instead of the name of the person, don't panic. That is very easy to fix without having to delete the "Unknown" individual.
Have the known person in the primary position in the Family view. If you added the Unknown individual as if you would have added a named individual (is there a RIN number for this individual?), simply click on the "Unknown" individual's field and the "Edit Individual" window will pop up. Fill in the correct name detail and click on "Save" and the new information will replace the "Unknown".
If you added the unknown individual as "Unknown" (no RIN number) in the "Add Spouse" by having selected the "Unknown" button, the process is just as easy but a little different. Double click on the unknown spouse and the "Add Individual" window will pop up, as shown in this image. Select "Add New Individual". The "Add Spouse for..." window will open. See the image below.
Enter the information in the "Add spouse for..." window and click on "Save". See the image below.
You will now get a small pop up window that asks if you want to add the correct spouse to the marriage that is currently showing in the primary position of the Family screen. Select Yes or No, as the case may be. If wanting to add it to the marriage where the Unknown person is showing select "Yes". The correct spouse will be added in place of the previously "Unknown" person. Fill in any known marriage details on the "Edit Marriage" window that pops up. Click "Save" even if no details are entered. See the image below.
The correct or new information has been added to the previously unknown spouse.