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Illegitimate children

Allan Kennaird
Allan Kennaird ✭
April 22, 2022 edited July 16, 2024 in Family Tree

In the LDS Tree Ethel Reader Henderson (GC3W-BJF) was Born to Christina Ann Henderson LYD7-B6K , but was raised by the Grand Parents John Henderson (LWM7-X62) & Christina Ann Henderson Nee Wallis/Wallace (LY8T-1N1) . Later Christina married to a Ernest Paulger but didn't take the child, Ethel Married in 1927 to a Robert James Keir Henderson (No Relative), what I need to know is How to show in the Tree that Christina only married Once and not to show the extra Marriage slot (Where Ethel was Born Illegitimate)

1

Answers

  • Brett .
    Brett . ✭✭✭✭✭
    April 22, 2022 edited April 22, 2022

    @Allan Kennaird

    Allan

    Welcome to the "Community.FamilySearch" Forum.

    I am just another 'lowly' User/Patron ...

    Just in passing ...

    It is really simple ...

    With, "Ethel"; as, the Child, in a "Family" ...

    Either ...

    IF, the Father is "Known"; THEN, you just LEAVE the "Event", for the "Couple"; as, "Blank" - NOTHING ...

    [ ie. Family = Father; and, Mother; and, Child; but, NO "Event" for the Couple ... ]

    Whereas,

    IF, the Father is "Unknown"; THEN, you just DO NOT have a Spouse/Husband (or, Father, of "Ethel").

    [ ie. Family = Mother; and, Child; but, NO Spouse/Husband (or, Father) ]

    Whatever, the situation/circumstance, just make sure, that you include copious "Notes", detailing the matter.

    [ eg. Father, "Unknown"; or, where there is a "Couple", 'Never Married'; and/or, 'Never Lived Together' ... ]

    I hope, that this may help/assist, somewhat.

    Brett

    1
  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    April 22, 2022 edited April 22, 2022

    Family Tree will always have the "add spouse" button(s) in the Family Members section; that's simply how the site works. Having the button doesn't mean you have to use it.

    For example, my great-grandmother was illegitimate, and I don't know who her father was. When she was 9 1/2, her mother got married, but that man never adopted or otherwise had any formal relationship with my great-grandma. Therefore, I have not entered him as her parent:

    image.png

    I could add Zsuzsanna as a child under János and Mária, with her relationship to János marked as "step", but I think it's clearer without that.

    (What bugs me about this is that it's out of order: since there's no relationship, there's no relationship event, and "no date" sorts to the end on FSFT. I wish it would use the birthdate of the eldest child in such cases.)

    3
  • Gail Swihart Watson
    Gail Swihart Watson ✭✭✭✭✭
    April 22, 2022

    I have an adopted relative that would be a perfect screen shot, except that most are still alive and I would have to black out almost everything. Said relative has 3 parent connections: adopted parents, and relative shows as "adopted". Birth mother and her husband; relative shows as "step - [name of birth mom's husband]". Third couple is birth dad and his wife; relative shows with "step - [name of birth dad's wife]".

    Unlike Julia Szent-Györgyi I chose to add the step relationship even though I don't like that term. It implies that the step parent acted like a parent, and in this case adopted relative never met them. BUT, I want the lineages to show when I make that couple preferred. That is a very endogamous community, and in fact birth mom' husband turned out to be a second cousin, which was confirmed in a phone call to birth mom. (Adopted relative didn't believe me and made me call birth mom - we actually had a wonderful conversation.) Thus, adopted relative doesn't have half siblings. They are more like 3/4 siblings.

    2
  • Harvest8
    Harvest8 ✭✭✭
    April 22, 2022 edited April 22, 2022

    @Allan Kennaird

    As Brett points out, in many cases, "use of copious notes".....(and in our opinion and related), notes might help decrease the propagation of typical errors with children born out of wedlock. Children born out of wedlock relationships can get mixed up and those relationship errors repeated. e.g. census enumerations for child under step parent surname, obits in later years "covering" unwed mother status by addition of unwed mother's brother's name as the father (oddly, just had 2 of these in last month).

    Here's one example of how we handled an unwed mother AND an "often relationship error propagated person" (in Ancestry.com trees)....... by adding context to "Life Sketch". https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LVZJ-RYF .

    On the other hand, If unwed status at birth is "common knowledge" (by viewing sources and publicly available trees at Ancestry.com), our preference, is to take no extra steps and/or not add "special notes".

    as others have shared, a pretty straight forward entry step based on the facts/sources....in general. (as you've already edited to match Brett's advice...smile...).

    enjoy the journey~

    1
  • dontiknowyou
    dontiknowyou ✭✭✭✭✭
    April 23, 2022

    obits in later years "covering" unwed mother status by addition of unwed mother's brother's name as the father

    Well, that's a head-scratcher, to say the least.

    1
  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    April 23, 2022

    Speaking of "obits in later years 'covering' unwed mother status", the above-illustrated Zsuzsanna's death record has her parents as Paulovkin János and Pohánka Mária, i.e. criss-crossing the names of her mother and stepfather so as to account for her surname being her mother's, not a man's. (The death registration was based on a written report from the hospital, so I don't know who the informant was who came up with this creative re-interpretation of history. My aunts were only 10 and 15 at the time, so I doubt they know or remember.)

    2
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