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Potential Problems Report


As you enter, edit, and import data into your family file, errors can creep in.  Some of these error are obvious if you see them, such as a death date earlier than a birth date or two children born three months apart.  Perhaps you typed in the year incorrectly or entered a wife's married surname instead of her maiden name.  These types of errors are very easy to overlook.  You should periodically check for these types of error (and many others) by running the Potential Problems report.  Legacy runs through your entire family file and checks the information for some common and sometimes unnoticed discrepancies.  Some of the possible problems it finds may not be problems at all but they are not normally seen.  If you are sure that a particular situation is correct, you can tell Legacy not to report on it in the future.

Note:  Legacy also checks for common problems while you are entering and edit information on the Individual and Marriage Information screens.  When a problem is found, a icon is displayed next to it.  If you hover your mouse over the icon, a popup box shows you what is wrong.  These problem icons are also shown next to the names displayed on the Family and Pedigree Views on the main screen.  It is now easier than ever to see when something needs to be corrected.


To print a Potential Problems Report:

1. Choose Potential Problems... from the Other Reports button on the Reports tab of the Ribbon bar.
2. Set the options, as described below.
3. If you are using the Standard Edition of Legacy, click either Print or Preview to view the report.  Deluxe Edition users can click the Create Problems List button to create an interactive list of all the problems found that is retained from session to session (until rebuilt by the user).  From the list you can edit the identified individuals and correct the problem or exclude it from future checking.  (See Potential Problems List for more information.)

Records Tab
This is where you select which records you want to have checked for potential problems.

Records to Check
The first time you run the Potential Problems report, you should have it check all the records in the Family File.  After checking all the potential problems you may find that some are not problems at all and the information is correct.  You might want subsequent passes of the Potential Problems report to skip these verified portions.  To do this, you can specify that Legacy skips records that have been marked to be excluded from the report.  (See Excluding individuals from the Potential Problems Report for more information.)

Only Check Tagged Records
You can limit the potential problems checking to only the records tagged on a certain level by selecting the Limit checking to records with tag: checkbox.  Be sure to also select the desired tag level.

Tagging the Problem Records
You can have Legacy tag the records that show problems to make it easier to work with them as you attempt to resolve the problems.

How Dates Are Checked
In most cases only two dates are taken into consideration when checking the range between them.  For example, 12 Dec 1888 and 31 Jul 1926.  In some cases you may have entered a date range for a particular event.  In these cases, it depends on what kind of test is being done as to whether the first date or the second date in the range is being used.  For example, if checking to see if a person was married before a certain age, and the birth date is "Bet 12 Dec 1888 and 12 Dec 1892," Legacy uses the first date when figuring the years between the birth date and the marriage date.  If the marriage date is a range, the later date of the range will be used.  In other words, Legacy uses the longest time period possible when figuring the age for potential problem checks like this.

Another example is when testing to see if consecutive children were born too close together.  This these cases, Legacy uses the shortest time period when deciding if a possible problem is apparent.

What is Checked

Warnings Tab

Many of the problems that Legacy checks for have a day or year range associated with them.  These values can be changed by using the up and down arrows on the spin controls to change the associated value.  

Individual Born when a Parent was younger than 13
According to the birth dates of this individual and the parents, this person was born when one of the parents was younger than 13.  Verify the dates and make sure this person is a child of the indicated parents.  (The cutoff age for this option can be changed.)

Married Before Age 13
This marriage date shows this person was married before the age of 13.  Verify the date. .  (The cutoff age for this option can be changed.)

Death Date After Age 120
The Death date shows that this person died after the age of 120 years.  Verify the dates.  (The cutoff age for this option can be changed.)

Birth Date More than 20 years after Marriage Date of Parents
The birth date is more that 20 years after the marriage of the parents.  Verify the date of birth.  (The number of years after marriage for this option can be changed.)

Birth Date After Mother is 50
The birth date shows the mother was older than 50 when it occurred.  Verify the birth dates involved. .  (The cutoff age for this option can be changed.)

Burial Date More than 30 days after Death Date
The burial date shows that it was more than 30 days after the death date.  Verify the death and burial dates. .  (The number of days after death can be changed.)

Husband and Wife have the Same Surname
Both the Husband and Wife have the same Surname.  This is uncommon.  Although the Wife normally takes the Husband's Surname when married, the Wife should be entered with the Surname of her parents.  Make sure the Surname is correct.  (This option can be disabled.)

Birth Date Before Marriage Date of Parents
This person was born before the marriage of his/her parents.  Verify the birth and marriage dates.

Check sort order of children
The birth dates of the children are not sorted in ascending order.

Problems Tab

Check for Valid Dates
All dates for the individual are checked for validity and correct formatting.

Birth Date After Parents Death Date
The birth date for this individual is either after the mother's death date or more than ten months after the death date of the father.  Check the dates involved and verify that this person is a child of the indicated parents.

Birth Date After Death Date
This person's birth date is later than the death date.  Correct the dates.  They may have been entered in reverse order.

Event/Fact date before birth or after death date
The date of one or more events is before or after this person's life time.  Verify the dates and make needed corrections.

Christening Date Before Birth Date
The christening date is before the date of birth.  Verify the dates.  They may have been entered in reverse order.

Burial Date Before Death Date
The burial date is before the date of death.  Verify the dates.  They may have been entered in reverse order.

Married After Death Date
The marriage date is after the death date of this individual.  Verify the dates.

Standardization Tab

Possible Illegal Character in the Name Field
The following characters are not usually found in a name: !@#$%^&*_ +=|\/;:><~` []{­} 0123456789.  Remove any erroneous characters.

Too Many Apostrophes in the Name Field
The name field contains more than one apostrophe.  Verify the name and remove any extra apostrophes.

Too many dashes in the Name Field
There are either two dashes together or a dash at the beginning or end of the name field.  Check the name and remove any extra dashes.

Possible Title in the Name Field
There may be a Title entered in the Name Field, such as 'Jr.', 'M.D.', 'Rev.' or 'Dr.'.  Remove the title from the Name Field and re-enter it into the Title Field.

Possible Extra Periods Found in the Name Field
Periods are not usually found in the Name field.  Check the name and remove any extra periods.

Surname Only One Character
The Surname for this individual is only one character.  Verify and correct.

Multiple names in a name field
Only one name should be entered in the name field.  Others should be put into the Alternate Names list.  Verify and correct.

No Period after an initial in a name
Most one-character initials are an abbreviation for a given name.  These should have a period after them.  Verify and correct if needed.

No space after a period in a name field
There is a period in the middle of a name that doesn't have a space after it.  Successive initials should be spaced out, not pushed together.  Verify and correct.

Only a question mark in a name field
Don't use a question mark for an unknown name.  Just leave it blank.  Verify and correct.

Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, etc. in a name field
These salutations are not part of a name and should be left out.  Verify and correct.

Descriptive words in a name field (Infant, Baby, etc.)
Descriptive terms are not part of a name.  Only a person's actual name should be placed in the name field.  Verify and correct.

Surname entered as all uppercase
You should enter name as mixed case, not all capital letters.  If you want to display surnames in all uppercase, there is an option in Options > Customize > Data Format > Displaying Surnames to do this.  Verify and correct.

Note:  You can have Legacy check for these potential standardization problems while you are entering information.  See Standardization Tips for more information.

Note:  If you are entering something into either the given names field or the surname to indicate that the name is currently unknown, such as [--?--], NN, or ??? or something similar, these entries will normally cause a potential problems alert.  If you would like to avoid the alerts on these name entries, you can do so by creating a file called UnknownName.txt in the [My Documents]\Legacy Family Tree\_AppData folder.  The file should contain two strings consisting of one or more terms separated by space between each one.  The first line is for unknown names that might be found in the Given Names field and the second line pertains to the Surname field.  For example:

Child ???
[--?--] NN ???

You can create this file using a text editor.

Gaps Tab

Warn if first child was born less than 8 months after marriage date:
The first child is usually born 9 or more months after a marriage.

Warn if first child was born more than 36 months after marriage date.
The first child is usually born within the first 3 years after a marriage.  If there is no child within this time period, there may be another child to find.

Warn if a child was born more than 36 months after the previous child.
Because there is no reliable form of birth control in earlier days, children were generally born about two years apart.  If two children were born more than 3 years apart, there may be a missing child.

Warn if child was born less than 12 months after the previous child.
Generally, successive children are born more than one year apart.

Only do the above checks for non-living parents
If you would like to limit the gaps testing to children of parents who are not living, select this option.

Only do the above checks for marriage years before:
In recent times, with the availability of birth control, the average gaps between children and the average period before the birth of the first child has varied widely.  This option lets you limit the gap checks to marriages that happened before a specific year.

LDS Tab

Check for valid temple names
Checks for valid names or abbreviations.

Temple not operational when ordinance performed
The date entered for an ordinance is outside the operational period of the temple specified.

Endowment recorded but Baptism is missing
Baptism ordinance should be done before Endowment.  If you have the Endowment date, the Baptism has probably been done too.  Search for the Baptism date on the Ordinance Index.

Sealed to Spouse recorded but Baptism or Endowment is missing
Individual ordinances should be done before being sealed to a spouse.  Sometimes these have been done out of order.  Check Ordinance Index records to see if you can find the Baptism and Endowment information.

Sealed to Parents recorded but Baptism or Endowment is missing
Individual ordinances should be done before being sealed to a parent.  Sometimes these have been done out of order.  Check Ordinance Index records to see if you can find the Baptism and Endowment information.


Formatting Options 
You can customize the look of the report by setting the format options.  Click Page Setup... to change the margins, page orientation, line spacing and print size.  (See Page Setup for more information.)   Click Change Fonts to select the font size and style for the report.  (See Select Report Fonts for more information.)


Where to Send the Report
The report can be output to various formats.  Make your choice by clicking on the appropriate option button in the Report Destination box in the lower-right.  The choices are:

Screen / Printer-Sends the report to either the Print Preview window or directly to your printer depending on whether you click the Preview or Print button. 

Text File-Sends the report to a text file on either your hard drive or a floppy disk.  You will be prompted for a drive and folder.

PDF File - Generates the report, displays it in the Print Preview window and then creates an Adobe PDF (Portable Document File) file.  This file can be viewed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader and easily sent to other people by e-mail.  (This feature is part of the Deluxe Edition only.)


Printing
When you have set all the options, click either the Preview button to see an on-screen view of the report before it is actually printed, or click Print to have the report sent directly to the printer.  Deluxe Edition users can click the Create Problems List to generate an interactive problems list where editing can be done to correct the problems for exclude them from the list.  (See Potential Problems List for more information.)  


Note:  The report settings for the Potential Problems report are saved in a file called RptProbs.usr in the [My Documents]\Legacy Family Tree\_AppData\Usr\ folder.

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