How would you add an illegitimate child with an unknown mother to the Tree?
Here's an example of what I have encountered on more than one occasion. A child is found in a census record in his grandparents' household (same surname). He is listed as their "son", but they (especially the "mother") are far too old to be the biological parents. The clear evidence is that he is the illegitimate son of one of the grandparents' teenage daughters (i.e., his biological sister) - but not of which one!
Up till now, I have entered such an individual directly under his grandparents, with a "Guardianship" relationship. However, it would be good to receive suggestions as whether to leave things there - or, perhaps, to create a "placeholder" ID for his mother - the profile just containing the family surname. This could then be merged with that of one of his known "elder sisters" if / when she is identified as his biological mother.
I would stress this is not a hypothetical situation. I have encountered it with families of interest to me, but that are not closely related. If born after civil registration began, I could pay for a birth certificate which should list the mother's name, of course, but I would not be too keen to do this just to satisfy my curiosity about a family with no known relationship to me! If born before civil registration began, I am my example assumes there is no baptism record for the child, or - even if one is found - it would falsely record his grandparents as his parents.
I would be most interested to hear of alternative ideas on how to add such a child to Family Tree.
Answers
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I have encountered this several times as well but I have always, eventually, managed to find answer. I like your 'Guardianship' temporary solution.
Don't discount the possibility that the child is the offspring of a son rather than daughter. That assumption cost me a lot of time and headscratching in one case.
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In my personal tree (not in the FamilySearch collaborative tree), I use a placeholder parent surname. Sometimes the census will even list a child as a grandchild but it's not possible to determine which child in the multi-generation household is the parent. Or, even if ANY living child is the parent.
I tend to shy away from hypotheticals in the Great Tree (FSFT). Guardianship would work; I just haven't used it.
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I haven't encountered the "masquerade", but I have encountered the situation where the grandparents are known, but not the intervening parent. It was long enough ago, however, that I don't remember my solution. I think I probably made a placeholder parent, because "guardian" didn't apply (the grandchild-grandparent relationship information was dated later than the grandchild's majority). I'm not particularly fond of such placeholders, but sometimes, they're necessary. (Most often, it's because you know for a fact that two or more people are siblings, but you have no information about their parents beyond their existence.)
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