Do you have any Unknowns on your Watch List?

Question

The Unknowns Project needs your help.

There are currently 310 00 profiles with no Last Name at Birth. We can do with a little help by you checking if you have been able to find the LNAB of some of these Unknowns on your Watch List.

You can find your Unknowns by using the following link:

https://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=srch1&Query=LastNameAtBirth%3Dunknown+XXX-10&MaxProfiles=500&SortOrder=Default&PageSize=100

Just replace XXX-10 in the text field with your Wikitree ID. Then Click on “Get Profiles”.

If you have some spare time, please see if you can add a name or information to these profiles.

If you no longer need a profile, and they are NOT connected to another person, you can do the following:

1.     Edit the profile by marking “about/uncertain but non-living”

2.     Add [[Category: Recycle Unknowns]] to the biography

3.     Click on the Privacy Tab and set the privacy to Open

4.     Then remove yourself as Manager of the profile

By doing this someone else will be able to re-use the profile.

Your help is highly appreciated

Comments

Thanks, Esmé. While I didn't find surnames for any of the six that I currently have, it's never a bad idea to review them.

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Thanks for the reminder! I've been working on Unknown Ireland profiles.  Probably would be a good idea to take another look at any Unknowns that might be on my own list.

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Thank you, Esme, for all that you do for the unknowns project, and for posting this timely reminder!!

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I only have a handful, but they are all mythical people.

Answer 1

Thanks for posting the link!

Answer 2

Thanks for the reminder Esmé. Only have one forever Unknown on my watchlist, but find a gazillion of them to research in the Orphans lists.

Comments

Thanks Patricia for alwaya trying to find just another LNAB

Answer 3

Quite a few Unknowns, primarily in the medieval period (and thus likely to remain Unknown).  Of the later ones, I fear they too will likely remain with only a given name, since many of them appear only on a census or a deed and we don't know their maiden name.  Thank you for pointing this out for people, though!

Comments

Thanks for looking into your Unknowns Darlene,

Yes there will be many Unknowns that will remain like that forever.

There are a large number of the early GEDCOM uploads that did not insert the LNAB in the correct field and we are hoping that some profile mangers of these early profiles might still be around to correct them.

Answer 4

Thank you to everyone that looked into the Unknowns on their Watch List over the last few days.

By looking at the Unknowns Feed, I saw that there are quite a few that were corrected.

Answer 5

I have 11 LNAB unknown, 2 estimated births in the mid 1600's in England, 7 in the 1700's in England or Ireland, and 2 in the early 1800's in England.

They are all spouses of ancestors and so far I have not found marriage records that give the brides last name. Some baptism records give the mother's last name but none I have found for the nameless eleven.

I do check them regularly; it's quite surprising how often records are added whether on FS, FMP, FreeBMD or Ancestry. Sometimes additional information can be found on records for siblings.

 It can be frustrating and takes time but occasionally I have found good sources by Google searching terms like Ellin wife of James married about 1650, Lancashire, England, or whatever the appropriate search terms are.

Comments

I believe I have found a LNAB for one of my unknowns, 1 of the 7 in the 1700s.