Do you have unknown birth and death dates in your Reunion 9 family file(s)? If you do, then you understand how those holes can impede your family history research. It’s easier to find information when the date range is constrained. When a death date is not known, it is helpful to use the burial date as the upper date limit. Similarly, the christening date (give or take a year) can be substituted for the birth date. Sure, you could try to remember to check for a burial date when the death date is unknown, but why bother when the software will remember for you?
Reunion for Mac 9 has a feature appropriately called “substitute events.” It will automatically substitute one event for another if the later is not populated. The substitution can be displayed where short dates are used, such as the family card and pedigree chart. Don’t worry. The substituted date is prefixed by an abbreviation, so it won’t be mistaken for the birth or death date.
Please launch Reunion 9 and play this video from the MacGenealogist Archives: Substitute Events in Macintosh Genealogy Software Reunion 9 for Mac. In it, I’ll show you how to make the necessary changes and how the substitute events display.
Here’s another Reunion item I didn’t know existed so really appreciate the clear and concise video explanation. It seems so simple once it’s explained but I often wondered what to do with spaces for missing birth dates and death dates. Thanks Ben for another excellent informative video.
Coralie, thank you for commenting. It helps me to know when MacGenealogists find my articles and videos helpful and why.
Coralie, thank you for commenting. It helps me to know when MacGenealogists find my articles and videos helpful and why.
Hi Ben
I have watched several of your videos. what a great help they are to a novice Reunion 9 user. In particular this video neatly solved a problem of showing approximate dates.
Thanks
Dee
I've been using Reunion for a long time, but didn't realise I could substitute. Thanks so much for the information.