These are the new features or recently fixed problems in Brother's Keeper
version 7.5.15 dated 31-Mar-2024
(The current version on this web site contains all the fixes and changes described below.)
Download current version of BK 7.5 with all the changes
If you have BK 7 you can pick "Help, About BK" to see your exact version number. The changes between your version and the current version are the ones listed on this page from here down to your version number.
(31-Mar-2024 new items or items fixed by 7.5.15 are below)
Changed: On Ancestor Chart screen, it will display Resided place on screen (before it would only show dates on screen and both dates and location on printout.)
Fixed: If you did Compute Relationship (from Edit) then closed it and picked File, Stop (from Edit) it would sometimes wrongly ask again for a person name or number.
New: Option to show program version sub number on Welcome screen. To turn on option, pick File, Options, it is at the bottom of the Dates tab.
Fixed: FIX for spouse on Descedant Report so does not show spouse birth place if option set for details excluded.
Fixed: on Indented report, if person had a not entered or blank spouse (person had children but no spouse) then it would duplicate the FindAgrave, Address, Todo, and Flag information for the descendant that had the blank spouse.
Note: If Tree print to PDF with huge paper, an error can occur if option for Continuous Paper is on. That option should not be on for PDF output.
Fixed: Fixed a couple other small things.
(18-Oct-2023 new items or items fixed by 7.5.14 are below)
New: If the sex of couple is wrong, click Male or Female and then there is a new option to change both sexes, and keep all children, sources, etc. attached.
Fixed: On the Compare Two Databases utility, added Cancel button when changing a Note
New: On the Relationship Box chart - option to print blue and pink colors on printer for boxes
New: On Word Search, Any Field, press F8 for new option to search Picture Headings, and Media Descriptions.
New: New option on Lists, Pictures/files attached to people - to Only show bad links to text, picture, media files
Fixed: Fixed a couple other small things.
(18-Apr-2023 new items or items fixed by 7.5.13 are below)
Fixed a problem with Group Sheet heading if doing multiple families in one report.
Fixed some line drawing problems in Box Chart - Household
Fixed some problems with Select Person screen that were caused in the 7.5.12 update.
(17-Mar-2023 new items or items fixed by 7.5.12 are below)
New language translation program is available for the translators.
Option on descendant Tree chart to remove blank lines to make it more compact.
The Family Group Sheet report has an option to enter a Heading for the first page.
Word Search Report, Flags tab allows searching for more than one flag at a time (must match all.)
Option on GEDCOM export for to pick GEDCOM 5.5 instead of 5.5.1 to be compatible with old Family Tree Maker program.
New button on Custom lists if you pick field for Paragraph 86, 87, 88 then button jumps to paragraph options.
New button on Custom lists if you pick field for Lablels 95, 96, 97 then button jumps to label options.
Added custom field 60 for 'Family BK Record Number' which is the marriage record number (not normally needed by most users.)
List of Surnames, option for paragraph format instead of columns.
Fixed on Word Search, Seach Event, the year range such as 1900==1905 was not working for Married and Divorced.
Some other minor bug fixes and changes.
(15-Dec-2022 new items or items fixed by 7.5.11 are below)
New option 15-Dec-2022 on Birthday List: On Page Setup tab, option to print the birthday list in two columns.
New report: List, all pictures or files attached to people or families.
The Ancestor Timeline now has new option to show BK code number.
Fixed: it was not showing *.PNG picture files when 'add picture' to Source.
On the citation picture screen, show event type, and person name and number also at the top heading.
Some other minor bug fixes and changes.
(01-Apr-2022 new items or items fixed by 7.5.10 are below)
Show BK code numbers for father, mother, spouses on Select Person screen if option is set for mother on a separate line
In List, Witness List, add 3 new options about sorting and last name first options.
Fixed a bug on the Media grid if you changed a line to Individual and then moved it.
Fixed a bug on Word Search, Make List to Edit. If the user did a Double click on the Edit button instead of a Single click on Edit it would cause an error.
Fix some problems for Norwegian version when searching with option for husband last name.
Some other minor bug fixes and changes.
(15-Dec-2021 new items or items fixed by 7.5.9 are below)
Fixed error on Backup with file CustomEvents.bk
Fixed on Word Search, Names and Relationship tab, the Alternate name search was not working for the bottom two types of searches (child/parent) and (child/father/mother)
add button "copy to clipboard" if showing how a source footnote will look
Fixed on Ancestor Box chart, if a person had Christened, and below was a blank person, it would print that christened date in the empty box
If selecting a group of people on Alphabetical list or Birthday list, increase maximum to 1.6 million
(19-Aug-2021 new items or items fixed by 7.5.7 are below)
Fixed a bug where sometimes a Fact like Occupation or Census which had a dual date would lose the link to notes or sources (N or S to the right) if you inserted an event above that fact.
Fixed a bug where sometimes an RTF file for a Book report would not include the extra Family events like Census Family.
(21-Apr-2021 new items or items fixed by 7.5.6 are below)
New report: Lists, Pictures attached to Sources
New option on Tree chart, to put 1 before children from spouse 1 if there are 2 or more marriages (it was always a space if first spouse)
If you delete a person who was a witness, set the witness link to say * * this person was deleted * *
New option on Other, Picture Summary to display pictures attached to sources
New option on Split Database and on GEDCOM, Export, Selected People. It can exclude spouses from Entire Branch and it also has an option to exclude adopted children - useful for DNA searches
When doing a Preview of a report that has Pictures, it will put into the picture box a message that the actual picture will print if you close Preview and click Print. You can turn off these words from the main BK screen using File, Options, Other
New option on Group Sheets to print 'pictures for sources' when printing source footnotes.
Added a Browse button after 'this folder' on options screen for text, picture, media
Plus several small changes and fixes.
(11-Dec-2020 new items or items fixed by 7.5.5 are below)
Fixed a problem in General ToDo when deleting a line.
Can show both "from" and "to" dates on Custom lists if the date field is set to size 18 or more, and you use field number 100 or more (100 = born)
(15-Oct-2020 new items or items fixed by 7.5.4 are below)
New option to make Table of Contents for Register Book
Word Search, Any Field, new option for search for a Picture attached to the source attached to an event.
When doing Split Database: The picture file names attached to Sources and Locations are included in the BKSplitList.TXT file.
Added option in 'Compare Two Databases' to not compare FindAGrave and not copy FindAGrave
Fixed on the Utility to 'Search for Duplicated in the database': sometimes it would delete a Marriage event for the person on the left side when you were deleting people from the list of marked people.
Fixed problem in Word Search, Any Field, if searching for for Pictures, but not notes
Source Grid has 4 options for which columns to show (pick Options), also 2 new columns with * if pictures attached to master or citation.
New option on Options screen to show 'Date Added' on the Edit screen
(10-Apr-2020 new items or items fixed by 7.5.0 are below)
A new View option: Five Generation View/Browse
Option to make a Table of Contents for the Ahnentafel Book.
Option to send the Indented Book Report to a HTML file.
New List report to find everyone attached to one specific location.
Option for Location Notes to print on Register Book, Indented Book, Ahnentafel Book reports.
New button on the Children tab, and Siblings tab, to 'show all children from all marriages of both parents.'
Ancestor Chart can print '4 generations with pictures' and 'Inverted Pyramid 4 generations with pictures.'
New option on Descendant Tree chart for Male only or Female only.
New option to show Notes on the Select Person screen.
(27-Dec-2019 new items or items fixed by 7.4.6 are below)
New: it can print the FindAGrave number on Book reports now.
Fixed a problem with Ahnentafel Book with Siblings with Custom Marriage Event descriptions and with Divorce at the end, sometimes a Child showed info for the Parent or sibling above them who was also an ancestor.
New option to show 'div' if divorced on the Collapsed Ancestor BOX chart.
Fixed on the 'Compare Two Databases' utility, if change to Secondary Parents, it still showed blue color for 'to be deleted' if primary parents were set to be deleted.
New option on Ancestor Chart and on Bow Tie: Do not show locations on the printout.
Fixed on Box charts, if starting person had only 1 child, there was an extra line to the left of the one child.
The Norwegian and Danish files were updated on 01 Jan 2020.
(11-Sep-2019 new items or items fixed by 7.4.5 are below)
Quality Check will remember the two options, Sort Name and Children Order.
New report: Ancestor chart, then pick Options - 4 generations with Pictures. Similar to the previous 3 generations with Pictures.
New report: Ancestor chart, then pick Options - 4 generations inverted Pyramid with Pictures. Starting person is at the bottom.
(12-Jul-2019 new items or items fixed by 7.4.4 are below. This version was not on the web site.)
Fixed: If you did Tree chart Male only, then did Indented Book, it was Male only for Indented Book.
Fixed: Overflow on GEDCOM export if one note was over 32,000 characters.
New option: to show Notes on the Select Person screen (Click Options on the Select Person screen to set it.)
Fixed a problem on the ancestor circle chart if the database had over 200,000 people.
(06-Jun-2019 new items or items fixed by 7.4.3 are below)
A new translation program is available for the foreign language translators.
New report: Descendant Box Chart – Household has children listed inside the box.
New report: Ancestor Implex / Pedigree Collapse show number of possible ancestors and what you have so far.
New Games: Surname Scramble, and Surname Word Search. Fun for reunions.
New menu items on Custom Lists to pick menu item File, then move a row up or down, or delete or insert a row.
Fixed: When doing a split or merge, if the marriage event had 2 or more witnesses, only 1 witness was copied.
New: On the Descendant Tree chart, option for Male only or Female only.
New: type only v or V in a location field to copy what is below (just like " or ' will copy what is above)
New: on the Sibling tab, click button at bottom to see All siblings based on all marriages of both parents.
New: "Match case" option for global search and replace of Text, Picture, Media (ignore case or match case)
Fixed: the 3 DNA events were not showing up on Utilities, Global Event Sort
(11-Dec-2018 new items or items fixed by 7.3.4 are below)
Fixed: On Gedcom export, do not say 'adopted' if details excluded
Fixed: On the Select Person screen, if asked for Married names, it works now even if not also doing Alternate names.
Fixed: On the Descendant Spiral chart fixed problem if asked for Spouse names, and spouse was 'not entered' then it did not show the child from that descendant.
Changed: After doing Global Event Sort, always jump to Re-Index the database to rebuild index
Fixed: On the Missing information report, the death place option was not being saved when saving options.
Fixed: The Polish version was showing wrong words for Husband, Wife, Partner on the Edit screen.
(24-Oct-2018 new items or items fixed by 7.3.3 are below)
New: On the find person screen, option so that for married women it will also search last name of husband. (This option is not available for Norwegian and Danish versions because those versions already do 4 searches based on character set.)
Fixed: GEDCOM export if a source had a link to https: it was not exporting.
New: On custom lists, 'age of spouse when married' field 50
(08-Aug-2018 new items or items fixed by 7.3.2 are below)
New: The Forward and Backward buttons on the Edit screen will remember the previous session when you restart BK.
Fixed: Fixed a problem with the Indented report when making Table of Contents and outputting to RTF if names contained accents.
Fixed: Fixed on Descendant Tree chart, if date option was set to Birth date only, it was not making columns wide enough.
Fixed: On the Book reports, if including Addresses, and if excluding data for living people, it sometimes showed the address for a living spouse if the other spouse was not living.
(25-Apr-2018 new items or items fixed by 7.3.1 are below)
New: New report: Descendant Spiral Time Chart.
New: MAP button on Location Details for the location name or the latitude and longitude. Double click a location name to go to Location Details.
New: MAP button on Event Notes to map an address or latitude and longitude
New: MAP button on Address tab on Edit.
New: new field 38 on custom reports "living people only"
New: on the Source screen added to top menu File, Show how this footnote will print or press F6
New: There is a new tab on the Book reports to also print Flag information.
New: There is a new Close button on the Preview screen.
Changed: If you are Adding a Witness and you type a BK number and the option is ON to add a Note to witness, then you can verify the name and Select before actually linking the witness.
New: Option on Bow Tie Ancestor chart to have different colors for left and right sides.
New: If you order the program on CD or USB it includes three new instructional videos. How to use Flags, How to use Word Search, How to use FindAGrave button.
(13-Feb-2018 new items or items fixed by 7.2.16 are below)
Fixed: The new feature for 'smallcaps' on the book reports had a problem if making RTF files and the name contained a single letter as part of the name, like J R Smith
Changed: Some small changes to make the non-English translations fit better on some screens.
(04-Feb-2018 new items or items fixed by 7.2.15 are below)
Fixed: On the Utility to compare two databases or search for duplicates, the button to move a note was not working in some language translations.
Fixed: When making HTML Group Sheets and excluding names of living people, the Index would sometimes show the name of a living spouse that had no birth date.
Translators: This version 7.2.15 can show new translation lines if you have the translation program dated Feb 2018
Fixed: The English version of 03-Feb-2018 had r instead of L on the Events grid for the L column until it was fixed on 04-Feb-2018. So if you see r you can download the update again to fix that.
(23-Jan-2018 new items or items fixed by 7.2.14 are below)
Changed: On group sheet HTML output, if FindAGrave field, then have it be a link to the site.
New: The "L" column on Edit will also show L if the location has a Note or a Picture
New option on Gedcom Export to Exclude _FGRAVE (FindAGrave) from going into Gedcom file.
New field 38 on custom reports for "living people only"
Changed on the Backup routine to still write to bk_files.txt the names of ALL attached files, even if option is set to only backup changed files.
Fixed a problem with the FindAGrave button where sometimes it searched for a death date when there was no death date on the grid.
New option on Utility, Flag a group of people, to exclude spouses for 'Entire Branch.' (Made a minor fix to that check box on 24-Jan-2018.)
Fixed a problem for users with character set 'Central Europe' on the 'select person' screen when searching Alternate names.
New option on Witness List to use Current or Married name for witness, instead of Birth name.
(19-Nov-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.13 are below)
Changed: Since the Select Person screen is now the same color as the Edit screen, there is a border around the Select Person screen to make it stand out more.
New: On the Compute Relationship screen, there is a new button to Save Options.
Changed: On the Tree Chart, the down arrow on the scroll bar will move down 5 lines instead of 10 lines. If you click in the middle of the bar, it will move down 40 lines.
Changed: The Ancestor Fan chart does a better job displaying Slovak or Czech characters.
(15-Nov-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.12 are below)
New: On Book reports, option to do 'small caps' (uppercase in smaller font) for all names.
New: Button on Options to show some sample screen colors to pick from.
New: The Ancestor Circle Chart has a new option to show 7 generations with first names for everyone.
New: On both the Ancestor Box Chart and the Collapsed Ancestor Box Chart there is an option to show Baptized date if birth date is unknown.
New: Option for colors on Collapsed Ancestor Box chart.
Fixed: Fixed a problem where some Russian last names were not being found when searching.
New: When doing a Word Search, and you click Create Report, there are two new options to sort in 'Death date order' or in 'Marriage date order' (if doing a marriage search.)
Changed: If you have the option set to automatically jump to the Edit screen when starting BK, then clicking the X in the upper right corner of Edit will stop the program and not ask if you want to stop the program. (Use the Close button to go to the main BK screen without stopping.)
(15-Sep-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.11 are below)
New: new option on Timeline (Individual) to include extra events from file: BKIndivTime.TXT Press F1 on that screen for help.
New: On the Witness grid, if the Witness type is OTHER, you can type in a description in the new right hand column and it will print that Other description when the witnesses print.
New: option on Tree chart to put full birth and death dates below the names instead of to the right of the names.
New: option to print address and todo items on Book reports.
Changed: allow F2 to also work from Events Grid to compute birth date, and added it to the Find menu at the top.
New: on the ancestor Fan chart, new option to show Baptised or Christened date if birth unknown.
(13-Jul-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.10 are below)
Fixed: On the 'All Relatives' report, if you asked for Alternate names, it had the wrong BK code number for people on the report.
New: The Reasonableness report will also warn you about "baptized before born" and "christened before born".
Changed: Made some changes about adding and searching for names containing special characters from central Europe.
(05-Jun-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.9 are below)
You can search for the FindAGrave text field on the Word Search screen. (Remember you can click that field and press F3 to find everyone that has something in that field.)
The FindAGrave field is exported to GEDCOM using the tag _FGRAVE
There is a new alternate name for the Names list on Edit: Tombstone Name
When you click the FindAGrave button on Edit, it will use the Tombstone name if the person has one, otherwise the Current name, or the Married name, or the regular top Name field.
(18-May-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.8 are below)
New: The new FindAGrave memorial number can be printed on Custom Lists (field 27), and can be printed on Group Sheets (the option is on the Notes/Children tab) and you can print it on the regular Ancestor Chart (the last item on the drop down list for 'Also show this event'.) You can also search for the number on Word Search if you pick the Any Event tab.
Fixed: The Ancestor Chart was showing a Custom Event, but not a Custom Fact. This has been fixed.
(17-May-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.7 are below)
New: 16-May-2017 On the BK Edit screen there is a new 'FindAGrave' button to search the www.findagrave.com web site to see if there is a memorial or a picture of the tombstone for the person you are currently viewing on the Edit screen. If there is a memorial for that grave, then you can copy and paste the memorial number from that web site into the new text box on the BK edit screen so it will find the memorial faster the next time. The FindAGrave web site has links to 160 million grave sites (mostly in the USA) and more memorials are being added every day. When you click the button in BK it opens your own web browser and goes to the site and starts a search. If you do not want to see the findagrave button in BK, then click Options at the bottom right and turn off the option for FindAGrave. The new button only shows up if your screen display size is 1024 by 768 or larger.
Fixed: On 17-May-2017 I fixed a small bug in the FindAGrave field were sometimes it was giving a new person a memorial number from a previous person.
(03-May-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.6 are below)
Fixed a problem on the List, Witnesses report where some witnesses were incorrectly listed as godparent.
Change: On the main BK screen, if you have more than one language file loaded for BK, you can click the button at the bottom to immediately change to the other language without going to the list of languages to pick from.
(19-Apr-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.5 are below)
Fixed a problem with Windows 10 users (after a Windows 10 automatic update) where BK was not able to determine if a folder or file existed. That caused errors when trying to create a new folder.
24-Apr-2017 also fixed a problem in the Convert 6 to 7 routine where it was having trouble making new folders with Windows 10.
(09-Apr-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.4 are below)
Fixed a problem on the Descendant Circle chart that happened in certain languages only.
New: three optional top heading lines for Box Chart when making HTML file.
This version contains new translation files for Norwegian, Danish, French (Canadian), French (Europe), Czech, Slovak.
(25-Mar-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.3 are below)
(new) Works with new language files from the new translation program. (It may take some translators a few weeks to make a new translation.)
(changed) As of 31-Mar-2017 the BKSETUP7.EXE file contains new translations for Norwegian, Danish, and French (Quebec).
(09-Mar-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.2 are below)
(new) New report: Ancestor Bow Tie Chart
(new) New report: Ancestor Four Lineages
(new) New option: on the Edit screen (options) to show L column with L if the location has extra details available (currently it does not show if the location has a Note or a Picture)
(new) New option: on the Edit screen there is a new option to show the marriage/family number below the spouse button. Normally you do not need to know the family number for a couple, but if you need it, you can turn on that option.
(new) On the Edit screen, hover the mouse over 'date of last change' to see the Added date and if person was brought in using GEDCOM.
(new) On the Witness grid there is a new column for Witness, Godparent, sponsor, legal witness, informant, other
(new) New report under Lists, Birth Order Report - oldest to youngest.
(new) Birth date order is a 3rd choice after you pick on Word Search, Create Report.
(fixed) 09-Mar-2017 Fixed a bug in File, Utilities, Limit Events to Show on Edit.
(17-Jan-2017 new items or items fixed by 7.2.1 are below)
(new) New report: Descendant Circle Chart. (This was on version 7.2.0 which was shipped on CD in December.)
(new) Search for Duplicates utility, new menu item to show possible matches based on parents of merged people.
(new) Indented book report, two new options. One for Color for generations, and one for Table of Contents.
(new) Reasonableness report, new menu item to show one line at a time and click a button to ignore it in the future.
(19-Nov-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.17 are below)
(new) new GEDCOM Import option 'Mark this person as private in BK if they were private in the GEDCOM file.' The option is visible if someone is private.
(new) on Group sheets and Book reports, if printing alternate names, new option to put alternate names in the index also.
(new) option on Tree chart to put ¦¦ after name if the descendant has the event 'no children from this person'
(new) A new shortcut for sources. Hold ALT and click the S column to add the previous source to this event. It will return and show the source name above the grid so that you know you added the correct source.
(14-Oct-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.16 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a bug that was only in version 7.1.15 on the Box chart causing an Overflow error.
(new) There is a new Option for the Edit screen to show a different symbol if a child or sibling was married, but had no children. You can pick Options from the bottom right of the Events/Facts tab to set the new option.
(changed) The GEDCOM Export has an option to select which Alternate Names to export.
(05-Oct-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.15 are below)
(new) You can select which alternate names to include for Group sheets.
(fixed) In the Compute Relationship routine, if a person had over 20 generations of ancestors, it would sometimes not find a relationship between person A and B, but it would work between person B and A. Now it works both ways.
(changed) A huge GEDCOM file will import 10 times faster in cases where there are over 600,000 names in the GEDCOM file and you start with an empty database and the GEDCOM IDs are numeric, not alpha-numeric.
(fixed) Fixed a problem with Split database, if you first select all people with range of numbers, then de-select people, it was leaving some people with blanks.
(changed) On the Collapsed Ancestor chart, the ancestor number can Start with a number higher than 1 now.
(09-Aug-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.14 are below)
(new) There is a new option to NOT show the new 'insert event' button on Edit screen. Click Options at the bottom right if you want to turn off that new button.
(fixed) When you use one of the previous 10 Sources, it will also remember the Quality field.
(changed) The Descendant Box chart can be 2400 boxes wide now, not just 1200.
(new) If your Windows display screen is size 1360 by 768 the Edit screen will be wider now.
(06-Jun-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.13 are below)
(new) On the Edit screen is a new button "Insert Event" to insert a event above the event that is currently marked with the >
(new) On the Edit screen, click Options for two new options. One option is to always open pictures with your default Windows program instead of the BK picture viewer. The other option is that when you click a N column to enter the first Event Note, it will automatically go into Edit mode for a new note (instead of you having to click the Edit button above the text.)
(fixed) On Tree chart and Box chart, if a child was marked as 'private - do not show that the person exists' it would sometimes put lines in the wrong place, or put people in the wrong place.
(fixed) When doing a GEDCOM import, it sometimes did not convert the character set for linked Notes.
(new) In the BK picture viewer, you can pick File, Rotate left or Rotate right if your picture is sideways.
(changed) When doing a name search for ? ? it will now sort the list by last name, instead of first name. (It was by last name in BK 6 and now BK 7 does it that way also.)
(09-May-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.12 are below)
(fixed) When making a Register Book Report, the Roman numerals before the children names were not right justified when sending the report to an RTF file.
(fixed) If you had Custom Facts for a person, those Facts were not printing on Lists, Numeric Report or Alphabetical Report.
(fixed) Sometimes when doing a Backup, if a text file or picture file was not found, it would cause a Type Mismatch error.
(01-Apr-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.11 are below)
(new) New larger font on Edit screen for screen size 1280 by 854
(fixed) Fixed a problem on Edit that sometimes caused a family event to move to the top.
(fixed) On the Utility, Edit Custom Events/Facts, the Edit button there to change spelling was not working.
(fixed) FIX a bug (again) on Edit screen if change spouse and click S column it sometimes showed the source for the other spouse.
(05-Mar-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.10 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem if importing a FTM GEDCOM file that contains the ALIA tag with a NOTE
(26-Feb-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.9 are below)
(new) There is an option to add three new buttons on main screen for Person Edit, Family Edit, Family View. See File, Options, RTF/Other to add those 3 buttons.
(fixed) Fixed a problem where a search for a Ref Number sometimes took too long.
(fixed) Fixed a problem on the Individual Timeline, where if there were exactly 5 people with the same year, it would sometimes skip one person.
(new) New report from the main screen List, People marked as private.
(03-Jan-2016 new items or items fixed by 7.1.8 are below)
(new) Added a new Option under File, Options, Other to change the word 'Family' to 'Couple' for marriage notes, marriage pictures, etc. (This is only for the English language version of the program.)
(fixed) The starting person on the Ahnentafel report did not show the marriage or divorce date and place if the option was on to also show pictures.
(fixed) On the Utility to Compare Two Databases, the words 'has general source' 'has name source' 'has Family source' were not showing for the left person.
(fixed) Fixed a problem where the age at death was sometimes wrong on the Birthday list when including people that had died.
(fixed) The Backup routine also backs up the Pictures and TextFiles attached to Locations.
(changed) Ahnentafel Book with All data for Children, now there is an Option to show or not show pictures of child who is ancestor, since some still wanted the picture after the 7.1.6 change below.
(fixed) On the Descendant report, if one spouse was 'private', it would sometimes not print DIV. for a different spouse.
(29-Oct-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.1.7 are below)
(fixed) The previous version 7.1.6 was causing problems on the Edit screen for users that had the option set to NOT move marriage above died and burried.
(25-Oct-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.1.6 are below)
(changed) Ahnentafel Book when using the option to print All data for Children, do NOT show pictures or Event Notes for the child if it is the child who is also the ancestor elsewhere.
(fixed) Fixed a problem if changing the event Census to Census (Family) it was putting it at the top of the events for the spouse.
(changed) When pressing the 'context key' while editing a Note, it will pop up a menu to Copy or Paste.
(fixed) Fixed some problems on the Utility for Global Search and Replace when changing an Event to a Fact or a Fact to an Event.
(07-Sep-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.1.5 are below)
(new) For the Custom Reports such as List, Numeric Report and List, Alphabetical report, there are new fields for the 19 types of alternate names. Fields 401 to 419
(fixed) Fixed a problem on the Edit screen when adding a spouse or adding parents, if the option was set to add 2 marriage (family) events to new people, sometimes the second family event was incorrectly moved to the top above Born.
(fixed) Fixed a problem when adding a new person and it shows a list of matching names, the top name was not highlighted, so if you hit 'Select' it incorrectly added the person as new.
(17-Aug-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.1.4 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem on the Edit screen if there were several family events or family facts and the order was changed, sometimes the new order was not saved.
(changed) On the Select Person screen, the area at the bottom showing details about one person is wider now.
(13-Jul-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.1.3 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem if a GEDCOM import had over 20,000 sources.
(fixed) The descendant Box Chart, if it all fit on one page, was not centering the top person correctly.
(new items or items fixed by 7.1.2 are below)
(fixed) Fixed some problems with children on a Group sheet if the children or spouse were marked as 'private'.
(new items or items fixed by 7.1.1 are below)
(New) New report Other: Relationship Box Chart. (See sample reports on the BK web site for an example.)
(fixed) Fixed a problem in the Norwegian or Danish versions if searching for a location and then cancel, the location changed to upper case.
(fixed) Fixed a problem with Other, Individual Sheets, if you Saved Options, and then went to Other, Group Sheets, it did not show any Marriage or Family events.
(22-May-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.50 are below)
(fixed) Sometimes the Box Chart report gave error 5 if the starting person only had one generation of descendants.
(fixed) Fixed a problem where Group Sheet HTML files sometimes had a name in the Index even though the name was marked Private.
(05-May-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.49 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem when searching for names when using the Danish or Norwegian language versions of Brother's Keeper.
(24-Apr-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.48 are below)
(new) Option on Ancestor chart to not show adoptive, step, or foster ancestors.
(new) On book reports, has new option for the word "Notes:" instead of just a blank line before notes.
(fixed) Fixed a problem when sorting a name Index for a report that was over 100,000 names.
(fixed) Fixed error on Ahnentafel book (with children option) if one spouse was Private causing subscript out of range.
(23-Mar-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.47 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem where the shortcut keys: CTRL+SHIFT+Letter were not working on the Select Person screen This problem started in the 7.0.45 update with the new feature of 10 drop down names.
(changed) On the Source Grid that shows the 10 most recently used sources, if you add or view a source with a different page number, it will show on the list of 10 even if the same source was there with a different page number.
(fixed) Fixed a problem in the Split Database or Merge Database routines where if a location had Pictures attached, or the new extra fields attached, they were not being attached to the location in the new database.
(22-Mar-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.46 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem on the Edit screen when clicking the picture in the upper right corner. This problem started in the previous update with the new feature of scrolling pictures.
(20-Mar-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.45 are below)
(new) On the Edit screen, on the Picture tab where it shows a small version of the pictures, if you have more than 5 pictures, there will be a button on the right to show more pictures.
(new) The Utilities for Compare Two Databases and Search for Duplicates in Database are in color now.
(new) When you click the S column to see a list of sources for an event, it will let you add any of the 10 previous sources instead of just the 1 most recent source. (I needed to move those buttons to the bottom instead of the top.)
(new) When printing Alternate Names on a Book report, there is an option to include the dates for each alternate name.
(changed) When you stop the program or change databases, it will save to a file the last 10 name searches and the last 10 sources viewed so they they will be available the next time you run the program.
(fixed) Fixed problem where ALT+F2 was not working on the Select Person screen.
(05-Mar-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.44 are below)
(new) New report on the Ancestor menu to find all 'End of line ancestors'.
(new) New report on the List menu to find all twins. (Siblings born on the same day or 1 day apart.)
(new) On the Select Person screen (when searching for a name) there is a drop down arrow for the name field where you can select from the 10 most recent searches.
(fixed) Fixed two problems in the Utility to 'Compare two databases' where sometimes when moving a child from the right side to the left side, it gave an error saying it could not attach the parents correctly. Also fixed an error message sometimes when adding a spouse.
(24-Feb-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.43 are below)
(new) There is a new option on the Edit screen to mark a person as 'private'. Pick from the top menu Edit, Mark this pereson as private, then pick one of the four types of privacy. If a person is marked as private, then the information for that person will not be printed on several of the reports. The privacy will work on any report that currently has the option to exclude data for living people. The data for private people will be excluded on those reports even if you are not excluding data for living people.
(new) There is a new option on the descendant Box chart to exclude data for living people.
(fixed) A problem was fixed on the Reasonableness report where it was not finding siblings born less than 6 1/2 months apart.
(new) If you pick Lists, Sources, Show everyone this is attached to: there is a new button to print all the citations for that one source.
(fixed) Fixed a problem on Utilities, Find Duplicates in Database, if moving a spouse from the right to the left.
(new) On the Book reports, it will not say (2) for a marriage if the first relationship was 'Not Married'.
(01-Feb-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.42 are below)
(changed) Translators can translate new words (see the new translation program.)
(new) File, Utilities, Edit Custom Event/Fact. Use this to make changes to your existing custom events and facts.
(21-Jan-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.41 are below)
(new) When you are making a Backup, there is a new option to only copy files that have changed since the last backup to the same location.
(new) When you are making a Backup, it will remember your settings for Text, Picture, and Media files.
(new) On the report: Lists, List of Surnames, there is a new option to select Ancestors of a person.
(15-Jan-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.40 are below)
(new) If you have specified Colors on the Edit screen with Options, then those colors will also show on several other screens in the program.
(new) On the Source edit screen, ctrl+; will insert today's date into the field you are typing in. That is CTRL plus semicolon.
(new) On the Edit screen when you are on the Events grid and you click Options, and the option is checked to save grid size, when you click Save Options, it also saves column width for Pictures, Media, Notes, Names, Children grids.
(new) Group sheet can print Media Description not just Media file name.
(new) Ancestor circle summary chart, has option to have starting person be called generation 0 instead of 1
(new) On the custom lists, there are four new fields: field 22 is spouse born date, 23 is place and 58 is spouse died date, 59 is place.
(new) On the Register Book report the option is saved for male only or female only if that option was set.
(new) On the Family Edit screen (View, Family Edit) if you hover the mouse over the Address button, it shows the address, if it hovers over Notes button, it shows first few lines of first note.
(changed) On Options for the Edit screen, if the screen size is large, it does not show the option about having a button for either Parents or Siblings since that option is only for small screens.
(03-Jan-2015 new items or items fixed by 7.0.39 are below)
(fixed) Sometimes the Descendant Box Chart would print a child name and not 'see children above' when you had the option set to not show duplicates caused by a cousin marriage.
(fixed) When typing in new text on the Notes tab for a person, pressing the TAB key was not moving the cursor.
(fixed) CTRL+X was not working correctly for Event Notes.
(15-Dec-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.38 are below)
(fixed) Sometimes the new option for printing names of Media files on the Group sheet was printing those of the parents and not the correct person.
(12-Dec-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.37 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem where the cursor was not blinking when you tabbed to a location even if the option was set correctly.
(fixed) Fixed a problem where if you had an empty database and went to Edit and picked the choice to convert from 6 to 7 the convert routine was not starting.
(fixed) This version changes the French Canadian month abbreviations back to having the first letter not in uppercase.
(new) This version has a new option on Group sheets to print the names of Media files that are attached to people.
(new) This version will let you show two Occupations on a Custom List. If you put field number 178 two times on your fields to include, it will print the second occupation also.
(12-Nov-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.36 are below)
(new) On the select person screen, there is a new Option, and if it is turned on, then you can type just the last name without having to type * for the first name.
(new) With this version, if your data is in a folder DROPBOX or ONEDRIVE or GOOGLE DRIVE then the program will create temporary files in the Windows temp folder and not your data folder. Hopefully this will stop some errors when printing reports when data is in one of those folders. Let me know if that helps or not if you are someone using those folders.
(new) On Lists, Numeric Report or Alphabetical Report there is a field 85 'first media file name' to print the name of the first media file.
(01-Nov-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.35 are below)
(new) For a long time, users have been able to add a Custom Event on the Edit screen using the Add menu. Now users can also add a Custom Fact. The difference is that a Fact has a Description and not a Location. These new custom facts can be printed on Group Sheets and Book reports. There are still some more changes to be made to the program before they work everywhere, but you can give feedback to John Steed if you have any problems.
(27-Oct-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.34 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem in Gedom Import caused by version 7.0.33 for the first 10 marriages imported.
(fixed) Fixed a problem when adding a brand new database, where the first links to a spouse did not show up unless you picked File, Re-Index Database.
(25-Oct-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.33 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem in Gedom Import where sometimes locations in the GEDCOM file that had latitude or longitude would cause an error message, or put the latitude and longitude with the wrong location.
(changed) The GEDCOM Import used to slow down a lot if there were over 125,000 families in the GEDCOM file, but now it works faster up to 250,000 families.
(changed) The Utility that changes names to normal case will also work correctly with last names startin with O' such as O'Brien
(13-Oct-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.32 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem when searching for Sources using the Norwegian or Danish languages.
(fixed) On the Compare Two Databases utility, it was not finding accented letters when searching the right side database if the new option was turned on to ignore accents when searching.
(changed) The Re-Index routine is faster now for large databases (over 400,000 names or events or other records)
(new) There is a new utility to 'Add country name to a group of locations' which is helpful if you are using the Origins report and it does not know what country people were born in.
(fixed) Fixed a problem where if you Rearranged Spouses, it might not show the spouses for that person unless you did a File, Re-Index database.
(22-Sep-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.31 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem when adding new people on Edit if the option was turned on to ignore accents when searching for names.
(fixed) Fixed a problem when deleting or moving General ToDo list items.
(20-Sep-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.30 are below)
(fixed) This version fixes a bug in the 7.0.28 and 7.0.29 versions where when adding new people to a database, it would sometimes make blank lines in the event grid.
(fixed) Fixes a problem where if importing a GEDCOM file, if the file had a Resided event with a note, it might miss the next event.
(fixed) Fixes a problem on the Compare Two Databases routine if the event on the left had a dual date and the event on the right did not have a dual date, it might duplicate the date on the left.
(changed) This version has changes in the way that the database indexes are updated so that you should be able to add hundreds of new people to a database without having things slow down. If things are slow already, do a File, Re-Index database. Then with this version, the database indexes should stay more balanced to prevent a slowdown when adding new people.
(07-Sep-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.29 are below)
(fixed) Sometimes when adding a new person, a 'stop statement' error would happen. That error is fixed in this 07-Sep-2014 update. (I thought it was fixed in the 06-Sep-2014 version, so if you still have the error, get this 07-Sep-2014 version.)
(fixed) If the option is turned on to ignore accented characters in a name search, it works for Alternate Names also if that type of search is turned on.
(04-Sep-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.28 are below)
(fixed) When adding a source, the button 'Add the previous source and x pictures' was only adding the first picture, but not other pictures.
(fixed) Fixed a problem if searching for locations when using Danish language.
(02-Sep-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.27 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem in version 7.0.26 which could cause a problem with the search index if you changed the spelling of the name of an existing person.
(changed) Faster search times when searching for a name in a large database.
(changed) The two other Views from Edit will show Married (civil) and Married (religious) and not just the normal Married event.
(23-Aug-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.26 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem from 7.0.25 that gave a blank screen with OK button if starting BK7 for the first time.
(changed) Made the name search work faster for a very large database.
(19-Aug-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.25 are below)
(changed) Translators can translate new words (see the new translation program.)
(changed) Danish and Swedish language translations have new sorting for special characters. After loading 7.0.25 they should pick File, Re-Index database.
(changed) The Family View screen is larger (if you press F7 or pick View, Family View from the Edit screen to jump there.)
(changed) When searching for a name, if the Alternate name search option is turned on, it does a better job now when the first or last name contains ? or *
(11-Aug-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.24 are below)
(changed) If you move the BK main window, and then stop BK, it will open the next time at that same position.
(new) There is a new Utility to move all Marriage and other Family events down to the bottom of the Events grid for all people in the database.
(new) If you have names with accented characters, and if you want all names with or without accents to be sorted the same way, then go to File, Options, Other, and at the bottom turn on the option to 'sort accented characters as if not accented' and then pick File, Save and Close and then File, Re-Index database. After doing that, you can search for Maria Smith and it will find the matching people whether the letters have an accent or not. Note that this option is not available if you are using the Norwegian language translation because that already uses a different system for special Norwegian characters.
(changed) On the Ancestor chart printouts, instead of always saying Spouse for the starting person, it will say Partner if they are not married.
(new) On List, Numeric Report there is now a way to select only the people changed after a certain date.
(changed) When a GEDCOM import is done, it will index the files automatically.
(new) On the Word Search screen, in addition to the AND and OR there is a NOT option now. You can search for Smith NOT John
(changed) If you pick File, Restore and it finds a BK6 database and not a BK7 database, it will offer to restore the BK6 database so that you can later convert it.
(13-Jul-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.23 are below)
(fixed) A change that was made in GEDCOM Import in the 08-Jul-2014 version affected importing of Address lines. This versions fixes that problem.
(new) When the import of a GEDCOM file is done, it will automatically start the indexing of the files, unless it needs to ask if you want to view the ged.lst file.
(fixed) The Utility to Compare Two Databases would sometimes have an error if you where moving a spouse from right to left and the person on the left already had 2 or more spouses.
(10-Jul-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.22 are below)
(fixed) When using the Split Database routine and the Witness option was checked, sometimes a witness to a marriage event was missing.
(fixed) Sometimes a one page Tree chart would print a blank page two.
(fixed) When printing a Register Book report, and you had the option selected to move all children to the next generation, and if you were also printing pictures, sometimes the pictures would overlap.
(08-Jul-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.21 are below)
(fixed) When adding new names on Edit, it sometimes said Error 5 when making a list of matching names.
(fixed) Fixed a problem with Split Database if including Witnesses (if the witness was not in the selected group.)
(fixed) Fixed a problem when searching for matching names including Alternate names when adding new people.
(fixed) If excluding data for living people, do not put 'Living' in the RTF name index at the end.
(23-Jun-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.20 are below)
(fixed) If you are adding a Source and you select an existing source, then you change something that is not the Abbreviation and click Close and pick 'Change only for one person' it was giving error 'duplicate master source'. This has been fixed.
(11-Jun-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.19 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a problem when adding a new Note to a person on the Edit screen, and then changing it from Individual to Family and then clicking Edit to change the note.
(fixed) Fixed a problem where the descendant Tree chart would sometimes not print a person's name at the top of some pages.
(04-Jun-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.18 are below)
(fixed) Sometimes on Edit, if you Rearrange Spouses, the spouse names would not show until you stop BK and restart BK. This update fixes that problem.
(28-May-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.17 are below)
(fixed) On Edit, if you Rearrange Spouses, the spouse names would sometimes not show until you stop BK and restart BK. Also sometimes when you are adding a spouse to a new person, the spouse would not show until you stop BK and restart BK. (this version did not fix all possible problems, so see version 7.0.18 also)
(fixed) Reasonableness report, the problem of 'married after death' sometimes showed wrong BK number for spouse.
(14-May-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.16 are below)
(fixed) On Register Book Report, if you had these 3 options set: 'Show children that do not have children in the next generation also' and 'Excldue data for living people' and you did NOT have set 'Separate paragraphs for husband and wife' it would sometimes not show the children.
(fixed) Fixed a bug where Backup sometimes gave error 'Event note file not found' if you did not have Event Notes.
(07-May-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.15 are below)
(fixed) Fixed a bug that caused GEDCOM Export to go slowly when an option was set to 'exclude data for living people'.
(changed) Increased the number of names that can be sorted from 1.3 million to 1.5 million.
(changed) To close the Source screen you can press Alt+O instead of Alt+S because Windows 8 was using Alt+S for something else.
(fixed) Fixed bug when trying to find or change path for pictures attached to sources. The bug affected both 'Fix picture path' and 'global search and replace, picture path' regarding source pictures.
(fixed) Fixed bug when backing up data, it was not backing up pictures attached to sources.
(21-Apr-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.14 are below)
(fixed) If the Select Person screen is set to search names when typing 5 letters of first and last name, it will also work if one has 5 letters and the other has less than 5 and an * or if one has 4 letters or less for short names.
(changed) The Backup routine will also backup the files that list the numbers available to be reused, and the Restore will restore those files.
(new) New option on the Descendant Marriage Record Report to 'not show birth date or location for child with no spouse.'
(fixed) The Polish version was not finding names starting with special Polish characters.
(fixed) When you click the W column to show Witnesses, it was not showing the Birth and Death dates of the witness.
(new) For Norwegian users, there is a new option under File, Options, RTF/Other, to 'Sort names using Norwegian alphabet' even if switching temporarily to English.
(06-Apr-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.13 are below)
(fixed) The previous version 7.0.12 might damage a Note that was changed from Individual to Family if you run Quality Check, so get 7.0.13 before running Quality Check.
(03-Apr-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.12 are below)
(fixed) If you picked List, Numeric Display or Unconnected People or People with Secondary Parents, and then you clicked Print or File, Create TXT file, it would give an error message, but still output correctly.
(changed) If you have the option set to search names by typing 5 characters for first and last name, and if you type 4 because one name is only 4 characters long, it will find those people.
(fixed) If you entered a name starting with a Czech or Slovenian letter such as Š or another character that is not a simple accent, it was giving an error sometimes.
(fixed) Sometimes changing the view from Edit to Family Edit would give an error that the person number was too large.
(30-Mar-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.11 are below)
(fixed) This version fixes some problems with searching for names or locations in the Norwegian language version.
(changed) Quality Check gives better directions about what to do if two people point to the same internal textfile. (English gives better directions now, and other translations will soon.)
(25-Mar-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.10 are below)
(fixed) When adding a child on Edit, sometimes M / F did not work to enter the sex.
(changed) When adding a source and the master source list is showing, you can press the down arrow to browse down without having to first click the list box.
(23-Mar-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.9 are below)
(improved) This version allows you to add up to 10 flags to each person instead of 5 flags.
(fixed) Sometime the Split Database routine was not coping all of a long note for a person.
(fixed) On File, Options, Edit Screen 1, the 'Do not use Western script for fonts' script name was too high.
(fixed) The Age of the person was sometimes not showing on the Compare Two Databases routine.
(20-Mar-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.8 are below)
(fixed) If you picked Edit, Rearrange Spouses, then when you were done, it would sometimes not show anyone on the Spouse field until you stopped the program and restarted the program.
(fixed) On the report Lists, Unconnected people display, it would start right away and include people that were witnesses. Now it waits until you click Start and will not include witnesses if the option is checked to not include them.
(16-Mar-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.7 are below)
(mailing) Version 7.0.7 (or newer) is being mailed out on CD to users that purchased BK 7 before March 15 and were mailed an eariler version.
(fixed) If you went to an existing Event Note and changed only the Print Where field, it would sometimes delete the note.
(fixed) If you added a witness to an event, it would not add a second Note to the witness if the witness already had a note.
(fixed) If you are adding a new person and you type in a number that was previously deleted, it was not linking the person correctly sometimes. (The BK7 program was designed to reuse numbers without you typing in a number.)
(14-Mar-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.6 are below)
(changed) The Convert routine tells you that you may want to move the pictures if they were located below the BK6 database.
(fixed) If you add a source and pick an existing source, then change it and say make it a global change, it added the wrong source.
(fixed) When starting BK7 for the very first time, it would copy over the options from 6 to 7 and then if it was set to automatically go to Edit when starting, it would give an error.
(fixed) When listing sources and you click 'show everyone this souce is attached to' then double click a marriage source it sometimes gave error xcode larger than max.
(3-Mar-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.5 are below)
(fixed) During Backup if a text file was not found, it gave the wrong person number in the error message.
(fixed) Origins report looked for USA but not U.S.A.
(fixed) Word Search, select person showed wrong spouse name sometimes
(changed) Ancestor fan chart lets you say the starting person is some number besides 1
(24-Feb-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.4 are below)
(fixed) Fixed some problems when jumping from Family Edit back to Edit.
(23-Feb-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.3 are below)
(changed) Custom Lists will make default BK number column width 7 if database is over 1 million names.
(21-Feb-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.2 are below)
(fixed) Custom Lists were only printing 30 characters for Ref Number even if it was longer.
(18-Feb-2014 new items or items fixed by 7.0.1 are below)
(fixed) Ancestor box chart, if location was too long, it just cut it off. Now it uses the short name if there is one, or it removes words from the middle.
(fixed) Fixed 'all relatives' report spouse names.
(fixed) Fixed individual timeline, if asked for married names.
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If you find any other bugs in the program, please email information to John Steed and include the version number of the program you are using. Pick Help, About BK to see the version number such as 7.3.1. It is best to send bug reports directly to John Steed and not to the BK mail list.
The discussion list for Brother's Keeper is currently being hosted by io.com. To join the mailing list, go to web site https://groups.io/g/BrothersKeeperGenealogy and you can sign up and either read messages on that site, or have new messages emailed to you each day. This list is useful to find out what others are doing with BK and to get ideas from others. If you have a question for John Steed, do not send it to the list, but instead send the question to John directly.