In today’s society we have this thing called dead beat parent, non custodial parents, etc.
For whatever reason childs parents never married.
Biological Parent, Birth Parent
How come this is not addressed in the Facts for parent to child or relationship to child.
I do realize that this can be addressed as Parent but don’t mark married,
The use of association would not show as a parent on the pedigree Views.
I think it should have it’s own distinction.
Just wondering how people address this.
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What exactly would you like addressed? You can attach two people as parents to a child, you can actually attach more than two people, but for arguement’s sake lets stay with two.
Regardless of whether the parents married, the persons attached as parents are still parents. If you wish to note that the parents didn’t marry or some guy got a girl in the family way and disappeared, it would seem noting that in notes would be sensible. I don’t know if you are aware of it but there are some different designations you can apply to the parents. If you open a person’s edit screen and click the parents line, you will get an option to set various relationships such as adopted, step, family member etc. Are you looking to have a ‘Deadbeat’ option added to that list or what?
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The problem with using “Deadbeat” for a father who didn’t show up is that there are divorced fathers who, once divorced, don’t show up and thus deserve the “deadbeat” designation. What gripes my beatitude is that an unwed mother and the resulting child are the ones who have born the sigma of the parents’ non-marital relationship since time began. Asking for a designation for a non-engaged father doesn’t seem too much to ask. And yes, DEADBEAT would be a good choice for the list.
Since I am willing to be your monthly food budget that it won’t happen, then you are left with ‘Birth’ in the relationship list and DEADBEAT as an adjective to describe him in the notes for the child’s birth.
I think this is not the norm and every scenario isn’t address in software.
What about “donors”, are they now labelled as dead beat (ie David Crosby/Melissa Etheridge)?
I would put in the Notes the information.
I did not want to use derogatory terminology such as dead beat and wouldn’t use that phrase in any part of Genealogy.
I was just trying to make a point that in today’s world there are parents that are not parents and people who step up to take the role of parent even when not the parent (without adopting).
I do realize that you can attach more than 2 parents to an individual. I also know you can indicate in the “relationship” if step, birth parent , biological parent, etc.
I have a family in my tree that (no judgement please) has multiple children from multiple fathers without being married to any of them.
I guess I was thinking of a way to indicate a person as a “biological parent”(no matter the reason) and not parent.
Some people may not agree that a biological parent is not the same thing as a parent.
I just don’t think the label of parent is the label to use.
The only reason I would want to signify a person who doesn’t want to be a parent is because someday someone may want to find
the child. It would be a verification…
I really didn’t mean to start a debate.
The only reason I believe there should be a designation for an absent father is because in the church records, there is a very derogatory term for a child whose mother wasn’t married to the father. The term “deadbeat” is mild compared to how the child is referred to.
I think it must be US terminology - never come across it in UK.
Assuming that the term you are referring to is “bastard” and which today is used as a derogatory term, one must also appreciate that it is also a legal term (Law of England and Wales) and affected inter alia inheritance rights. One cannot just dismiss the term or replace it with the latest “trendy” terminology.
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Things change over the centuries, perspectives change and society has a different view of things like this. I don’t hear of children of unwed mothers referred to as “bastard” much anymore, but fathers who don’t take responsibility for a child are still referred to as a “deadbeat dad,” even those who were married and divorced from the mother, but who refuse to support the child.
I’m mainly dealing in the past with my genealogical research.
One minor niggle on perspective is that the term should be conveyed as “deadbeat parent”. The reality is that whether the matter is a result of historical tradition, jurisprudence, or a number of other factors (family support, economic viability, etc.) that typically results in the larger proportion of attribution for the term falling most often upon the male, society has rightfully moved away from the stigma of labeling the child and shifted that to their parents, plural.
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And in my family there are several “single mothers” from the early 1800s. One of the resulting children is my 2nd great grandfather, born in England 1830s.
Roots Magic is used all over the world and the included terminology should reflect that.
Americanisms are a plague.
Deadbeat is not a term used to describe anyone in English Genealogy.
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Why? Does this mean that the books that I purchase in the Unites States, written by authors in the UK, should be released with proper spellings of words like organization (not organisation), proper reference to things things like car trunks (not boots). Based on your argument, those books are being used in American and should reflect our terminology.
Deadbeat.
A totally worthless inclusion.
Americans cannot spell anyway
Not a very valid argument which is a surprise for you! RootsMagic purports to be an international product. It is however produced in the USA and I can live with American English and spelling variants. However when it comes to terminology such as “deadbeat” which is purely a US construct then I would not agree with its inclusion. Yes, I have the option not to use it but that is not really the point.
First, some of those books purport to be international bestsellers so they should be written for the market where the publisher ships them…at least they should per Colin’s argument. Which granted, was a bit ridiculous.
Second, I wasn’t aware that RM was going out of their way to claim they were international but it has been a long time since I seriously read their advertising materials.
Thirdly, anyone that actually took deadbeat as a possibly serious suggestion probably should have a few more doses of their daily drug of choice…such as caffeine. I think I previously mentioned that the status was probably better noted in the note section, because no matter how good or bad the parent is…they are still just that, a parent of some variant, blood, adopted, step, etc. They choices in the parent drop downs cover most choices.
Spaniards spell superbly superior!
The Father/Mother labels can be customized. Open the Edit Person screen and highlight the Spouse row. On the Father or Mother label click to open the Drop list and select Other. It will open up a field to enter you custom label. The only places you will see it outside of the Edit Person screen is on the Family View and on the Family Group Sheet.
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