using OLD variable in DELETE trigger

Hello,

I am trying to get a trigger to fire when a record is deleted that will
record the deleted record in a history file. Here is the trigger code:


CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION logPedigreesDel () RETURNS TRIGGER AS '
begin
INSERT INTO PEDIGREES_hist(
PedigreeID,
ProjectID,
prev_PedID,
prev_FamIndID,
prev_FamID,
prev_IndID,
prev_FatherID,
prev_MotherID,
prev_Sex,
prev_Age,
prev_Dna,
prev_Diagnosis,
prev_StatusBroa d,
prev_StatusNarr ow,
prev_LiabilityC lass,
prev_Exclude,
prev_ModDate,
prev_ModBy,
InsertDate)
VALUES (
OLD.PedigreeID,
OLD.ProjectID,
OLD.PedID,
OLD.FamIndID,
OLD.FamID,
OLD.IndID,
OLD.FatherID,
OLD.MotherID,
OLD.Sex,
OLD.Age,
OLD.Dna,
OLD.Diagnosis,
OLD.StatusBroad ,
OLD.StatusNarro w,
OLD.LiabilityCl ass,
OLD.Exclude,
OLD.ModDate,
OLD.ModBy,
OLD.InsertDate) ;
end;
' LANGUAGE plpgsql;

However, here is the error message when the trigger fires:

psql:testphdtri g.sql:1: ERROR: record "old" is not assigned yet
DETAIL: The tuple structure of a not-yet-assigned record is indeterminate.
CONTEXT: PL/pgSQL function "logpedigreesde l" line 2 at SQL statement

OLD is supposed to be an automatically created variable, datatype
record, and about a dozen examples I've seen use the OLD variable in
this way without having to declare anything.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

thanks mucho,
Rick
--
Rick Casey, Research Associate
Institute for Behavioral Genetics
rick.casey@colo rado.edu