Name index puzzle

RootsMagic
1

The Name index has a column for birth and death years. Great! very helpful when names are repeated in the family. But many death years that are in my database are NOT shown in that name index list. How can I get all the death dates to show?
MKL

2

If you are seeing some then it would seem you have the correct option enabled (to display them onscreen). And if they are RootsMagic’s built-in Death fact and they are valid Death dates using valid months with any optional date modifiers also being valid (ie. not an invalid date entry typically shown with colored text) they ~should~ show up.

3

Don’t know for sure, but some things to check on (I’m assuming RM8) :
Everything @kbens0n said plus

Run the four database tools.
Shutdown and re-open RM (you probably already tried it).

4

Even if you don’t encounter the problem of missing birth and/or death dates in the sidebar index, it’s still a good idea to run the four database tools on a regular basis. I don’t think they need to be run every time you startup RM, nor even daily. But they should be run at least monthly and better still would be weekly.

There are a number of actions that a user can take that can cause the birth and/or death dates to be missing or incorrect in the sidebar index. For example, you can have duplicate Birth or Death facts and then delete one of the duplicates. Or you can have totally invalid dates and then correct the dates - that sort of thing. I have never been able to reverse engineer all the things I could do to confuse RM about the sidebar dates, but it is easily confused. In these kinds of oddball situations, rather than fixing the code in the Edit Person screen to set the dates correctly in the sidebar index, RM relies on you running the database tools periodically.

5

Guess I am guilty of NEVER running the “four database tools” as I don’t even know what they are. I believe all of the other suggestions about invalid dates or revised dates do not apply.
Thanks for trying to help.

6

Click on the icon that looks like a sheet of paper with the corner turned down. The window that opens has an icon for Tools. Click on that.

7

I found the data base tools, but only after I got out of my “people” view in RM8 and went to “file”. I doubt I am the only user who spends most of my time in people view and there I know the tools icon but, obviously, I get different results. I’ll give it a try, but not until much later today.
Thanks.

8

Do check the RootsMagic Help for answers to many of your questions. I trust you know how to get to it. It would be worth your while to read it from top to bottom:

1 Like
9

You may want to get to know and learn to love the palette in the upper right corner. It is between the three dots and the Find Everywhere box. If you click it and type Database Tools, it will pop up. You can also access a lot of other stuff directly, using the palette.