Messages in FreeBMD
Messages in FreeBMDThis page contains explanations of the messages that you may see when uploading files to FreeBMD.
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Duplicate page numbers | The file contains two +PAGE lines specifying the same page number. At the start of a scan page the page number (the number from the scan file name) is specified in the +PAGE line. At the end of the scan page the next page number in sequence is entered in the +PAGE line. If only part of a scan page is in the file, terminate it with +BREAK. |
| Missing page number | There is no page number on the +PAGE line. The the number from the scan file name should be specified in the +PAGE line |
| Age At Death after March 1969 line n (line) | After March 1969 entries should contain the Date of Birth ("DateOfBirth" field in flat files) not Age at Death. Found at line number n and the line contained line. The value supplied has been ignored. |
| Date of Birth prior to June 1969 line n (line) | Before June 1969 entries should contain the Age at Death ("AgeAtDeath" field in flat files) not Date of Birth. Found at line number n and the line contained line. The value supplied has been ignored. |
| Age at Death should be included in entries from March Quarter 1866. Got '' at line n (line) | From March 1866 entries should contain Age at Death ("AgeAtDeath" field in flat files) or Date of Birth. No value supplied at line number n and the line contained line |
| Age should be all numbers or wildcards, optionally ending with 'm' (for months), or empty. It can also be a range. Got age at line n (line) | Invalid format for age at death. Age at death must be a number, a number followed by a hyphen and another number, and in both cases can be followed by "m" (for months). Uncertain characters are also permitted. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Page should be numeric optionally with slashes and optionally followed by a single letter (or contain wildcards), got page at line n (line) | The format of the page field was not as expected. The page number should normally be number, optionally followed by a single letter and optionally preceded by a letter A. Some punctuation characters ( , / ) are also allowed as are Uncertain characters. Late Entry References (such as "See D/1868") may also occur and will be accepted but if they are not (because of an unusual format) then a #THEORY,REF should be used. The problem was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Page number out of sequence in +PAGE at line n (line) | The page number in the +PAGE line is out of sequence with regard to the previous +PAGE line in the file. This was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Possible mistranscription of handwritten "ss" as "fs" in name at line n (line) | name contains the character pair "fs" which may be a mistranscription of the 19th century method of writing "ss". See here for examples of such usage. If the transcription is handwritten and this method of writing "ss" applies the transcription should be corrected to read "ss". This was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Possible mis-transcription: name name starts with XX at line n (line) | name starts with the same two characters (XX) and this makes the name very unusual. This was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Possible alternative name (should be transcribed as two entries): name name at line n (line) |
name looks like it is an alternative of the form "name1 or name2" or "name1 alias name2" which should be transcribed as two records, one with name1 and the other with name2. A suitable #COMMENT(2) entry should be inserted between the two records; see examples of the format of #COMMENT(2). This was found at line number n and the line contained line.
|
| Volume is expected to be numbers optionally followed by a letter, a to p, got volume at line n (line) | volume is normally an Arabic number (e.g. 16) followed by a single letter a to p (or A to P), e.g. 16b; check that what has been transcribed corresponds to the original. This was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Possible mistranscription of fullstop as comma in name at line n (line) | A comma was found in a name. This is commonly a mistranscription of a fullstop. Check that the name really does contain a comma. This was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| You do not appear to be a member of a syndicate transcribing this quarter |
You are not registered as belonging to any syndicate that is transcribing this quarter. This may be because you have specified the wrong year, quarter or event; please check and correct if necessary. Otherwise, please contact your syndicate coordinator or 
|
| Space after # in possible #COMMENT/#THEORY | A #COMMENT or #THEORY line has no space after the # so the line in question may be an incorrectly formatted #COMMENT or #THEORY line because it has a space after the #. |
| #COMMENT may be an alias comment it which case it should be multi-line |
The #COMMENT line appears to be reporting an alias (of the form "name1 or name2" or
"name1 alias name2") but only applies to one line. Alias #COMMENT lines should cover
all lines concerned, e.g.
#COMMENT(2) entry reads BONUS or CHAPMAN for surnameSee here for more details. |
| Date of Birth should be in the format ddMMyyyy with MM as a valid month, or empty. Got DateOfBirth at line n (line) | Invalid format for date of birth. The format is dMMyyyy or ddMMyyyy, that the day as a number (one or two digits), the month as letters (JA,FE,MR,AP,MY,JE,JY,AU,SE,OC,NO,DE) and the year as digits. Uncertain characters are also permitted as are forms like -MMyyyy, Unknown and About yyyy. This was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Comment must not refer to an entry using the words "above", "next", "previous" or "following" at line n (line) | A comment (#COMMENT or #THEORY) always applies to the immediately preceding entry (and the entries after if using "(n)") and must not refer to another entry using words such as "next", "above", "previous" or "following" since when the results are displayed it is impossible to determine what is meant. The word "above" can normally just be omitted without a change in meaning. See Comments Help for more more information. This was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Duplicate entry in quarter year type at line n (line) | In a RANDOM file there should not normally be duplicate entries, that is two or more identical entries in the same year and quarter and of the same registration type. This was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Bad format at line n (line) | The format of the line was invalid. Typically this relates to having unmatched quotes (") or space between comma and quote. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Invalid UCF characters at line n (line) | The line contained Uncertain Character Format (UCF) characters that did not conform to the rules given here. Typical problems are the use of consecutive asterisks (*) and the use of question mark with other characters. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expected 5 or 6 parts in a +INFO (got m) at line n (line) | An +INFO line should have 5 or 6 fields but m fields were found instead. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| INFO file type must be SEQUENCED, RANDOM or ONENAME (was type) at line n (line) | In the +INFO line a file must be specified as SEQUENCED, RANDOM or ONENAME but type was found instead. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| INFO registration type must be BIRTHS, DEATHS or MARRIAGES (was type) at line n | In the +INFO line the registration type should be BIRTHS, DEATHS or MARRIAGES but type was found instead. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expecting a +INFO line at line n |
The first (non comment) line in a file must be +INFO but it wasn't. The error was found at line number n.
The most common cause of this error is using software to produce the file that puts additional information in the file. For example, a Microsoft Word document (.doc) or Excel spreadsheet (.xls). Make sure you save files as character only files (e.g. .txt in Word or .cvs in Excel). |
| Character not in FreeBMD character set (ISO8859-1): character name at line n (line) |
A character with the name character name was found in the line but this is not a character that is in the FreeBMD character set (which is ISO8859-1).
Find the character in the line and replace it with either an ordinary character (e.g. if it was a left double quote replace it with double quote) or, if it was an accented character, with the unaccented equivalent. |
| Expected 4 parts in a +CREDIT (got m) at line n (line) | The format of the +CREDIT line was wrong; it should have 4 parts but actually had m parts. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expected 3-7 parts in a source (got m) at line n (line) | A line of type source (which will be a +F or +M line) should contain 3 to 7 fields but it actually contained m. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expected 3-5 parts in a source (got m) at line n (line) | A line of type source (which will be a +B or +U line) should contain 3, 4 or 5 fields but it actually contained m. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expected 4 or 5 parts in a +S (got m) at line n (line) | A line of type +S should contain 4 or 5 fields but it actually contained m. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expecting a year between 1837 and 2000, got year at line n (line) | The value of year is outside the range covered by FreeBMD. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expecting a quarter (one of Mar, Jun, Sep or Dec) got quarter at line n (line) | A quarter must be specified as Mar, Jun, Sep or Dec (the case is not significant) but quarter was found instead. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Range should be letters and a - (or missing), got range at line n (line) | The format of a range is letters, followed by a hyphen, followed by letters but range was found. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| First part of range should be before second part (got first to second) at line n (line) | In a range the value of second must be greater than the value of first) but it wasn't. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expecting a +F, +B, +M, +S or +U line at line n (line) | The source of the information, entered as a line starting with a +F, +B, +M, +S or +U line should appear before any index entries but it didn't. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Duplicate entry in quarter year type at line n (line) | In a RANDOM file there cannot be duplicate entries, that is two or more identical entries in the same year and quarter and of the same registration type. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| +PAGE can only appear in a SEQUENCED dataset at line n (line) | A +PAGE line should only appear in a SEQUENCE or ONENAME file, but the file is of type RANDOM. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expected +PAGE to be alone or followed by a page number at line n (line) | The +PAGE line should contain only the +PAGE or the +PAGE followed by a page number. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| +PAGE expected before first entry | This type of file (a SEQUENCED file) must have a +PAGE line before the first entry. A +PAGE line should appear at the start of each page and, if the last page is complete, there should be a +PAGE line at the end with a number one greater than the number of the last page. |
| +PAGE expected in file | With the number of entries in this type of file (a SEQUENCED or ONENAME file) one would expect more +PAGE lines than were found in the file. |
| +PAGE or +BREAK expected at end of file | This type of file (a SEQUENCED file) must end with a +PAGE line or a +BREAK line (if the transcription is incomplete). A +PAGE line should appear at the start of each page and, if the last page is complete, there should be a +PAGE line at the end with a number one greater than the number of the last page. |
| Page number should be numeric, optionally plus a letter, got page at line n (line) | The page number in a +PAGE line should be numeric only, or numeric followed by a letter. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Page number out of sequence in +PAGE at line n (line) | The page number in the +PAGE line is out of sequence with regard to the previous +PAGE line in the file. This occurred in the last +PAGE in the file which should be one greater than the previous +PAGE in the file. |
| +BREAK can only appear in a SEQUENCED dataset at line n (line) | A +BREAK line should only appear in a SEQUENCE or ONENAME file, but the file is of type RANDOM. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expected +BREAK to be alone at line n (line) | There should be no characters following the +BREAK. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Didn't understand directive at line n (line) | A line beginning with directive could not be recognised as any kind of valid line. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Expected m parts in type at line n got p (line) | For a line of type type m parts were expected but p were found. All fields that contain one or more commas (even in the {n,m} format) must have quotes round them and this error is often caused by not doing that. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Unexpected characters in surname surname at line n (line) | The characters in the surname were incorrect. Each character must be a letter (including accented letters) or a punctuation character ( & ( ) ' . , : ) or space. Uncertain characters are also permitted. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Unexpected characters in first names given at line n (line) | The characters in the first names were incorrect. Each character must be a letter (including accented letters) or a punctuation character ( & ( ) ' . , : ) or space. Uncertain characters are also permitted. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Age at Death cannot be included in entries before March quarter of 1866. Got Age at Death at line n (line) | Age at Death does NOT appear in the INDEX until March 1866. It should therefore be removed from this entry. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Unexpected characters in mother's name mother at line n (line) | The format of the mother's name was incorrect. Each character must be a letter (including accented letters) or a punctuation character ( & ( ) ' . , : ) or space. Uncertain characters are also permitted. Mother's name only appears in the entries from 1911. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Mother's name missing at line n (line) | There is no Mother's name in the entry but one is required in the year being transcribed. The error was at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Unexpected characters in spouse's name spouse at line n (line) | The format of the spouse name was incorrect. Each character must be a letter (including accented letters) or a punctuation character ( & ( ) ' . , : ) or space. Uncertain characters are also permitted. Spouse names only appear in entries from 1911. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Spouse name missing at line n (line) | There is no Spouse name in the entry but one is required in the year being transcribed. The error was at line number n and the line contained line. |
| District should consist of letters, numbers, dashes, spaces, dots, commas, ampersands, slashes, colons, brackets and apostrophes, got district at line n (line) | The format of the district was invalid. Each character must be a letter or a digit or a punctuation character ( ' ( ) . , & / : - ) or space. Uncertain characters are also permitted. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Volume should be numbers (Roman or Arabic) optionally followed by letters, got volume at line n (line) | The format of the volume was invalid. The format is a number optionally followed by a letter. It may also be preceded by a letter A. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| Roman volume is not a correct roman number, got volume at line n (line) | A volume number in roman numerals was expected but volume was found instead. Roman numerals must be in capitals - valid characters are X, V and I. The error was found at line number n and the line contained line. |
| The page/volume cannot be the same on consecutive lines, got volume/page (line) | On a number of consecutive lines in the file the volume or page numbers are the same. The volume and page is transcribed from each entry and cannot be consistently the same on consecutive lines. |
| Empty file! | There were no lines found in the file. This error can also be reported if the file in the Upload box does not exist. |
| Year sourceyear does not correspond to year filenameyear in filename | The year given in the file is sourceyear but this is different from the year given in the filename which is filenameyear. Correct either the content of the file or the filename. |
| Quarter sourcequarter does not correspond to quarter filenamequarter in filename | The quarter (Mar,June,Sep or Dec) given in the file is sourcequarter but this is different from the quarter given in the filename which is filenamequarter. Correct either the content of the file or the filename. |
| event sourceevent does not correspond to event filenameevent in filename | The event (Births, Marriages or Deaths) given in the file is sourceevent but this is different from the event given in the filename which is filenameevent. Correct either the content of the file or the filename. |
| Transcriptions will only be credited if comment field is Credit, CreditInvite, CreditReport or CreditAnon (got comment) | The transcription will only be recorder against the name given in the first field of the +CREDIT if the third field (the comment field) is literally Credit, CreditInvite, CreditReport or CreditAnon; it was actually comment and therefore this transcription will not be credited. Note, however, that upper and lower case are equivalent. |
| Cannot have UCF in surname in ONENAME or RANDOM file at line n : surname | The file is of type ONENAME or RANDOM and in the entry at line n the surname surname contains UCF characters. The surname in a ONENAME or RANDOM file cannot contain UCF characters. |
| Bad format in multi-line COMMENT/THEORY at line n (line) | There is a character, other than a space, between #COMMENT or #THEORY and the (n) that signifies a multi-line commment or theory line. |
| Invalid late entry reference, at line n, should be "#THEORY,REF,See quarter/year", e.g. "#THEORY,REF,See D/89" (got line) | The Late Entry reference in the #THEORY,REF has the wrong format. See here for details of the correct format. |
| Late entry reference must be to a date in the future, at line n (line) | The Late Entry reference in the #THEORY,REF refers to a quarter that is in the past with respect to the quarter the entry is in, but Late Entry references must be to a quarter in the future. |
| Quarter found in filename (filename) which has a year from 1984 onward | Pages from 1984 onward are for the whole year so the format of the filename should not include a quarter. |
| Got quarter (quarter) in year year which is after 1984, at line n (line) | Pages from 1984 onward are for the whole year so +S,+F,+M,+U should not contain a quarter but the line contains quarter |
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