Name Unknown

When going through the look up screen in the Household Menu, 'Name Unknown' precedes the person's full name.

After selecting one of the 'Name Unknown' records, this preceding tag is no longer visible.
How can this tag be eliminated or what does it mean?

Our ward has six member records with this tag. One member had her record updated- she died. Another record is for a sister- I requested her and her husband's records to be returned to the ward. For an unknown reason their records vanished. There is a household record for the latter couple, but there is this additional Name Unknown record.

I would appreciate your suggestions.

Bruce

My take on these "Name Unknown" records is that
they are like empty envelopes - let me explain.

Compare the records of a new family moving
into the ward to that of receiving a piece of mail.

The Household record is the envelop with one
of those clear plastic windows in it that shows
the family name of the Head of Household on the
mail inside it.

Now, when the "mail" inside the enevelope is
transferred out - i.e. the records of the members
of the household - the software should delete
that now empty household - or what is an empty
envelope. For some reason, it doesn't always
do this.

I recently used the boundry realignment tool
to move households to new wards after a
split, and even after the records were all
sent and received in their new wards,
I had a large amount of "Name Unknown"
households. And when I pulled up the household
records they had no attached membership records.
So basically they were like empty envelopes.
Fortunately, you can manually delete each household.

It took a while ( had over 100 households to delete),
but it sure was better than having a ward directory
with a bunch of "Name Unknown" entries listed.

- Atticus Ewig

Hi Atticus,

Thank you for your reply. You are very good at explaining this problem in simple terms. What you are saying makes sense because when I look for the individual record it isn't there!

Fortunately I only have about 6 records to delete.

Thanks again.

Bruce

The approach that Atticus recommended worked except for one record.

That record when selected does not display the option to delete, rather it takes me to the household record from: Name Unknown, Sister Member Name to the Household in which the sister resides.

I think the problem originated when I requested the sister's and brother's name (married couple) separately. This happened in my first week as a clerk and didn't realize all I had to do was request the household record through the brother's name. Now it looks like I have a duplicate household record with a Name Unknown link attached to it.

Do you have a suggestion on how I can delete this record or link?

Bruce

Ask for a membership data refresh from CHQ.

I just had the "Name Unknown" households show up in a Households Being Home Taught list, but when I tried to pull up the household records, none of them show up in the pick list.

Could this be because I haven't been authorized to make any membership changes (I'm the EQ Pres)? Also, will a request for membership data refresh solve the problem or will each of the households need to be deleted individually?

I want to get accurate info before I request the branch clerk (or show him how) to make the changes.

greggo wrote:I just had the "Name Unknown" households show up in a Households Being Home Taught list, but when I tried to pull up the household records, none of them show up in the pick list.

Could this be because I haven't been authorized to make any membership changes (I'm the EQ Pres)? Also, will a request for membership data refresh solve the problem or will each of the households need to be deleted individually?

I want to get accurate info before I request the branch clerk (or show him how) to make the changes.

The problem is with the database and the way it is handled. There are two different head of household lists, and you are seeing one that has not been synced with the main part of MLS.

I discussed this with the developers several years ago, and it sounds as if the problem is still there. The "Name Unknown" households that show up in a Households Being Home Taught list are usually members who have moved out of the ward. They are phantom entries in the HT list, but they are really gone, which is why you can't pick them from the main list to delete them.

The fix is probably the same. Do the membership data refresh first, and then work on cleaning up the problem, most of which will go away with the refresh.