time line events labelled incorrectly

shirleyelrick

I was just sent a notification that FS had created a timeline for my great-grandmother. This idea is certainly a good addition. However, there is something that may need ironing out.

My great-grandmother had 3 children and she also adopted another. She never married.

I have a proven DNA link to the man who was the father of my grandfather, so I have entered him up as such. To do this I had to link Louisa with the man who fathered her child, but I did not enter any sort of relationship.

The timeline shows the death of this man who fathered my grandfather as 'death of spouse' in Louisa's timeline. This is misleading to anyone who reads it.

Is there a way to record a relationship that was NOT a marriage? So that a child can be linked to a man, but the child's mother NOT linked to the father as 'spouse'.

For the timeline wording - My preference would be to show the death of the father of Louisa's son X, but if that is not possible, then do not show this death at all in her time line.

Carla Tobler

@shirleyelrick

Thank you for posting your question in the Community regarding your great-grandmother's timeline.

We have viewed these records in Family Tree and can see that you have not added a relationship between your great-grandmother and your grandfather's biological father. So there is nothing you can change there that will correct the timeline.

We did, however, discover a method for removing the Death of Spouse from her timeline.

Here are some instructions from an article from our Help Center.

Timeline Options (website)

Open timeline

1. In Family Tree on the FamilySearch website, display a person page.
2. In the menu bar below the person's name, click the Time Line link.

Customize timeline

1. On the left, click Show.
2. To add or remove features, click in boxes. When the box is blue, you see that information on the timeline.

Following the above instructions, once you Click Show you will see a drop down menu.

Under Relationships, Click the check-mark beside Couple (this will remove the check-mark). This will also remove the Death of Spouse from her Timeline.

We are attaching a link to the article we have referred to. We believe you will find the information helpful as you customize Timelines of your ancestors in Family Tree.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/what-is-the-timeline-or-map-in-family-tree?articleVariant=public

Best wishes.

MNuttall

To resolve this problem, you may want to list the child separately under the mother and separately under the father. In Family Tree, if you link a child to both parents, the system assumes the parents were married.