I am totally new to Roots Magic 9 and trying to figure out best practices, how to and so on. I’m sure I’m messing up here and there, but that’s okay. I’ll fix what I can. In the grand scheme of things I’m the only one who cares in the long run.
The situation is this: In the 1950 census, I have my grandfather and family at the time. I’m entering the census under him as head and then sharing with others on the census. The kicker is that there is another family living with them at the time. Normally, I could pretend and bypass them, however, either the father or the son impregnated my aunt and my cousin was born. My cousin was named exactly like my grandmother.
There was no marriage. My aunt was mentally challenged.
How should I document this? Everyone is deceased that played any part in it.
Hoping I understand what you are saying .
First , I was would use the Census and record the facts as the census taker took them with the “Role” and household info. 2nd you can record additional info in the note - but you then should have a separate source and record the person or info where that came from. Censuses can have missing info and mistakes – which is relatively common. This often is due the the person providing info as well as the census taker who took the info
My way of handling this situation would be to proceed entering the census as you have done, although I do not use shared facts but instead give each individual their own Census fact. I would then add this other family in the Census note for the head of household. I might say something like "Additional people living in the household were: John Doe, age 43, Jane Doe, age 42, etc …
The information in regards to the possible cause of pregnancy would get added to the aunt’s note and would say something like “It is believed that John Doe or Robert Doe fathered Ruth’s child. These persons were living in the household as of June 15, 1950” (or whatever the census date was).
I would probably also make this a private note as in enclosed in {} until such time as some proof emerged to prove the speculation as correct. With DNA these days, one never knows.
RootsMagic 9 offers an Associates feature. With this feature, the other family can be added as “Neighbors” without (edited to replace linking with adding a familial relationship) to the family. You could then add the rumored father of the child as a parent, with notes (no marriage fact) and change the relationship labels. There are videos to help you on RootsMagic TV (YouTube). See the links on the home page under Help and Support. Here is a link to the video for the Associates feature. New “Associates” Feature in RootsMagic 9
Associates are going to link the family to the neighbors (and they aren’t neighbors if they live in the same house as stated). The association has to be made, and who do you make it to? The head of household,? The aunt?. This also becomes much more difficult with not notes because you have at least two prospective fathers, the neighbor father or the neighbor son. What are you going to do? Add both of them as fathers? That really makes no sense. Using a note to specify that one of the two individuals is likely the father works a lot better.
Thanks. I like the idea of the note. I didn’t think about 2nd “source” of where the story came from. It was told to me and my sister at separate times by our grandmother. My grandmother told us quite a few stories and I’m checking them all out. I’m finding they are all true, which I didn’t doubt but finding the best way to document them. I’m not looking for dirt on anyone, just trying to document how things came to be. There’s lot of those kinds of things. My sister and I main focus is to where we came from.
Thanks. I like this way. Would the note go under my cousin as well? As far as DNA, everyone has passed away. My sister and I did our DNA and came up with rather surprising results. But, the way we are we deal with it and go on. I do wish other in our family had their DNA done though. But everyone is gone like my mom and dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles.
I’m going to go with a note for now. Thanks for the “Associates” link. My mom had 2 really good best friends in her life and I would like to show those. I’ll check out the video.
I’m going to go with the note idea. I think in this case it will work the best. I have another case where my aunt (another one) was well accosted and was 1 month pregnant when she got married to my uncle. No one know who is the father. My cousin was born exactly 8 months after they were married. I’m just wanting to document all of the family stories in our family for anyone who may care in the future.
I’m assuming you have only one sibling BUT what abt cousins?? Nieces and nephews?-- the more people you test in your lines, the clear the picture is sometimes-- for example-- my sister took a DNA test and she has hits on all of our lines-- paternal and maternal-- my hubby is a totally different story though as his g-grandparents were 1st cousins–so he has a ton of DNA hints from those maternal lines and not as many in all the other lines…
If the cousin you are talking abt is still alive, it MIGHT be worth their time to do DNA testing-- it may NOT necessarily tell you all whether it is the father or son BUT then again, it MIGHT-- and it will add more to what you already know abt your DNA-- just a suggestion…
I know a lot of people on here are going to say ’ OH NO- I WOULDN’T DO THAT BUT will tell you what several friends have done ( and I have done also) in such a situation-- one friend, did NOT know who his father was, didn’t know who his maternal grandfather was and didn’t know who his 2nd g-grandfather was-- he did a lot of DNA testing with several different companies- the results with one company gave us a real good idea which line his father was from-- the results from another told us basically who the 3rd g-grandfather was and the results from another gave us a ton of hints to one particular Smith line which turned out to be the grandfather-- so basically since he knows the 3rd grandparents were John and Jesse Hall-- he went in and found all the kids for this line–unfortunately we don’t know which son-- so after all the other kids, we added a new child called Unknown Son Hall or Which Son Hall-- then listed everything he learned from the DNA testing etc to his general notes-- just a suggestion!!!
Actually I have 3 siblings. I really wish I had one though. Long story. My sister and I took the DNA test, but no one else. It shows she is like 25% my full sister. The DNA is consistent with 3/4 sister from what it says. If that is true, then there is only one person who could be her father. My older brother is probably my dad’s. My younger problem, there is a good chance that he isn’t even based upon circumstantial evidence. And then there is me. I’m probably my dad’s. We share the same birth defect which occurs in about 1%-5% of the population. I hope it doesn’t sound bad, but I wouldn’t be hurt if I wasn’t.
One of the reasons I started genealogy is to get past my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother. I know a lot about them coming forward, but nothing going back. I found out a lot lately through newspapers as to clues who there family is, but nothing I can positively see yet.
On the DNA scope, the company I went with does show quite a bit of people who match pretty close to me. Some I know who they are and some I don’t have a clue. A couple of people almost show as half sisters although I’ve never heard of them. So I’m trying to figure out all of this stuff the best I can.
Not trying to dig up dirt on anyone. No time for that. I just want to know where we came from. My mom always said we were Heinz 57.