Dear All
My Great Grandmother had two children out of wedlock, One my grandmother, unknown father, and a brother also unknown father (they might not have had the same father).
About two years after the birth of the brother my great grandmother married (was he the father of the two children? I don’t think so.) She then went on to have two more children with her new husband, a boy and a girl, These would my grandmothers half sister and brother.
Now my question is how do I represent this on my family tree using Roots magic 10. I have tried but it never comes out as I want it, either the new husband is shown as the father of them all or if I put the two illegitimate children with the mother they don’t show up as part of the whole family.
Any advice would be most appreciated, or if this problem is already answered can you point me in the right direction.
Kind Regards
Stephen
You need to add two new spouses to your G Grandmother (right click her in the tree and select add spouse) - call them what you will (unknown 1 and unknown 2?) and then edit your Grandmother and her brother to show parents as your G Grandmother and the appropriate unknown spouse would work. Just make sure that unknown spouses haven’t been created already.
Example
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You may get some slight different version– but key is for your situation and desired result is not to have “unknown” (RMID 0) spouses.
Also to set the child/parent relationship correctly for the label.
I had a similar situation with my Grandmother /Aunt(half). My father believe his sister was his full sister and it was not until after his death that I was able to prove she was only half sister.
[EDIT] See Jerrys excellent reponse
Kevin
Adding the extra spouses unknown 1 and unknown 2 can be an assist to getting the data entry to be correct. But strictly speaking they are not necessary. Their slot in the family tree does have to exist for the structure to be correct, but the slot can be empty.
However, I think the following is what you are really asking. Namely, if the data is entered correctly and if you look at the family starting with your great grandmother, you will see three spouses, one known and two unknown. As I said, the unknown ones can be left blank or they can have dummy names such as unknown 1 and unknown 2. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you will see three families and you will see all the half siblings.
But if you look at the family starting with your great grandfather, you will see just the one spouse and just the children of your great grandfather and your great grandmother. That is correct and that is the way it works. It’s not just that that’s all you will see on the screen, that’s also all that will be in printed reports or in any Web pages you might publish etc.
Actually, it’s no different than if your great grandmother had actually married and divorced the two men we are calling unknown 1 and unknown 2. If you look at the family starting with your great grandmother, you will see all three families including all the half siblings. If you look at the family starting with your great grandfather, you will see only the only family with your great grandfather and great grandmother and their children and without the half siblings.
If you really want to see all the half siblings when you look at the family starting with your great grandfather, you have to add all the half siblings to him as his children. Think of them as his foster children or as his adopted children or as his “raised by” children. It doesn’t matter which, but you have to add the half siblings as his children if you want to see them when you look at the family starting with him.
There are many variations on this theme and the children do not have to be illegitimate for the same issue to arise. Both of my grandfathers as young men became widowers with young children. Both of them remarried and had additional children with their second wife. So both of my parents had half siblings. If I look at either family from the point of view of either of my grandfathers, I see all the half siblings. But if I look at either family from the point of view of either of my grandmothers, I do not see any of the half siblings. Thus far, I have not chosen to add any of the half sibling children to either of my grandmothers as step children or “raised by” children or anything like that, but I could easily choose to do so.
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Dear All,
Thanks for your help. I think I have enough to go with. I will look carefully at what is said and try to follow it
Kind Regards Stephen.
