My grandfather remarried after his first wife died in 1953. All children were born of the first wife. the second wife (my Step-grandmother) had never been married and was in her 60s when married to my grandfather in 1960. They had no children. Am I considred to be a legitimate decendant from Her family line. If not, how do I make my actual grandmother my (primary) grandmother.
1 Like
No you are NOT a descendant of her family–what you would do is list your father or mother ( and any siblings they had ) under the grandfather and the 1st wife-- then add the marriage of the 2nd wife to your grandfather without any kids..
That keeps everything strictly correct as for your lineage/ Ancestry BUT depending on your age, you MIGHT FEEL like the 2nd wife was YOUR GRANDMOTHER–she might have had kids that you consider to be as much an Aunt/Uncle as your biological Aunts and Uncles --and/ or grandkids that you consider to be cousins–you can add the 2nd wife as a step-mother of your parent in RM BUT RM basically does NOT differentiate between biological and step relationships–so say it was your mother, In RM 10 and before in some reports such as kinship , your mother would have 2 mothers, another set of grandparents etc and lots of extra aunts and uncles–RM 11 does NOT list the stepmother as a mother for her BUT rather the wife of the grandfather BUT does still add the extra grandparents etc
Just depends on whether you want your database to be biologically correct or to reflect the dynamics of your family–know that is a hard
decision as my hubby had 3 step fathers ( 2 before he was 17) and the 1st two were as much his Dad as his real father…
She was my grandmother in name only. No kids of her own, only some sisters that i never met. She lived to 101. But when her family history goes back, I just don’t feel right to claim those ancestors as truly mine.
Thanks for your help.
Greg
To expand on this. How do I remove her name from my grandpa’s file and replace her as a second wife but not as an ancestor to my mother as you were suggesting? I also have a problem with my mom being listed twice as a daughter which I can’t seem to correct either.
Unlink both daughters that are duplicates from the parents. Assuming the have the same number just relink daughter back once to parents. If they have two different numbers, you will need to merge them into one person. For the first question, unlink your mother from the second wife.
In the Life Summary for you mom, you can UNlink your mom from the 2nd marriage couple.
Also in the Edit screen for her, click on Parents and in side panel you will see the Relationship. For the 2nd marriage you can change Relationship to Mother as Step.
1 Like
I have this exact situation with my great-grandfather, except that we do consider him our “true” grandfather since my grandpa’s biological dad died when he was just a baby. I handled it in RM by attaching both fathers to my grandfather, and setting the father type as “biological” to his bio-dad and “step” to the father who raised him.
As for whether you consider those people family, that’s entirely up to you. As I said, we consider Grampy and his people to be kin, just chosen family rather than bio-family. You may choose something different based on the type of relationship that you had.
…and there in lies the difference between genealogy and family history in one short paragraph.
That’s a great way to put it, and I guess it aligns with the way I describe myself as a “family historian” rather than an amateur genealogist.
1 Like
Thank you to all who responded. NOW I just need to get it all corrected.
Greg