Who Is "Place Holder?"

Here's a problem you might encounter when you are ready to prepare an Ahnentafel (Ancestor Chart).  What do you do if the couple of interest didn't have any children?  If you have data about the ancestral lines of both members of the couple and you choose one or the other you will only have half of the data in your report.

Here's my solution to this problem.  I create a child record for the couple.  I name the child "Place Holder."  I can even include some information in the Note of this record to explain what I'm doing. I select "Place Holder" as the starting person for my report and the problem is solved. After I generate the report I delete the record for "Place Holder."  If I forget to delete the record I can always easily find any records for "Place Holder" by searching for that name or looking at the sorted name list in the RootsMagic display.

Dick Henthorn
29 August 2014