title: XML Deserialization of a date with an empty value
body: <p>I'm getting a xml file from one vendor that has some "empty" dates like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;UpdatedOn/&gt;
  &lt;DeletedOn/&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>By doing a regular deserialization it fails with:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Inner Exception: System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Any ideas how to deal with this ?</p>
  
  <p>My fields are already marked for a default <code>DateTime</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(DataType="date")]
  [System.ComponentModel.DefaultValueAttribute(typeof(System.DateTime), "1901-01-01")]
  public System.DateTime UpdateOn{...}
  </code></pre>