How to enter a ****'s father

LegacyUser

Lindsay Adams said: Example: Woman 18 years old has child to a man who has no intention of marrying her. She then lives with another man who then becomes child's stepfather. The biological father marries someone else. The child grows up knowing real father's name and he even takes biological father's surname. Life goes on.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Welcome to the forum Lindsay!

Here are some things to consider:
1-the child does have an identified biological father
2-the child has the biological father's surname
3-the child does have an identified biological mother
4-the child does have an identified step father
5-there was no formal relationship between the biological parents (i.e., they were never a "couple")
6-there was a formal relationship between the biological mother and the step father

Each of these conditions can be simultaneously represented in FS. An example similar to this can be seen with my ancestor Cecil Fern Santee KVGH-DHV



The only difference between your example and this one is that at birth, Cecil was given her mother's maiden surname which was later changed when she was adopted by her step-father. Since Birdie Thurman and Wm. Woodward never had a formal relationship, they are just not shown as a couple even though they are both parents of Cecil.

Each person can have only one biological father and mother, but they can ALSO have multiple other parents with different types of relationship (e.g., adopted, step, guardian, etc.). When no relationship type is shown on the web page, it means that it is a biological parent.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Interesting, thank you - I never knew that you could get "Adopted / Step / whatever father / mother" to appear in the diagram. Apparently I've never set any children as Adopted / Step / whatever. Or if I have, I've forgotten.

I would say that the diagram would be better if we could explicitly force "biological" into the diagram when we wanted it, rather than rely on someone "knowing" that "no comment" means "biological". Especially when "no comment" is just as likely to mean, "I didn't know you could do anything like that!"

Judging by my trial on the Beta Site, you can actually force the Parent Child Relationship pop-up to say "Biological" by putting a full stop or anything in the "Reason this information is correct" for "Edit Relationship" - but it doesn't appear in the diagram - so far as I can see.

LegacyUser

Lindsay Adams said: Thanks for the welcome everyone. Thanks Jeff and Adrian. I am a little surprised that such respected website does not have the ability to easily add biological father without having to add another husband. I studied what you said Jeff but I don’t know how to enter that second person without going through “add a husband”. I am still on Learner’s Plates with Family Search.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Lindsay,

I'm not quite sure what you are referring to. The following mockup is also possible to configure as well


Remember, the lack of a parental relationship type means that it is biological.

Is this what you were referring to? This is what you would get if the mother didn't marry. In this Example, Cecil could just as easily have been given the surname of Woodward if that had shown on her birth records.

Note that creating these relationships is possible, but how to manipulate them can be totally unintuitive on this site.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Since most relationships in the database are biological, turning that one on would add a lot of extra space in the Family Member portion of the web page. I'm not so sure that I would want that, especially with family of 10-15 children that I keep running into :-)

LegacyUser

Lindsay Adams said: Jeff.I am going to step away from computer for awhile. It’s a nasty hot day in Victoria. Regards Lindsay.

LegacyUser

Lindsay Adams said: Jeff. I entered ‘step’ where appropriate and all seems well. Thanks for your patience. Regards Lindsay.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Not automatically turned on, no. Just when the user felt it useful to make it explicit what was going on. Right now it looks like I can add an explicit biological relationship, but it doesn't populate the diagram.

LegacyUser

Lindsay Adams said: Things aren't good here on east side of Australia and with no sleep in 2 days I wasn't absorbing what you and Jeff were saying. I've got what you both said now. Things working fine. Next time there is an illegitimate child to deal with it will be easy. Have to remember to go into edit on the child's name and do "Add Relationship Type" and as Jeff said if there is no entry evident between the 2 parents then they are biological parents. Sleep time.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Yea, If you've noticed, there is NO "undefined" relationship. The relationship has to have a type assigned and when it is first created it is biological. So, for a relationship to be displayed it has to be a non-biological relationship (except perhaps with the gimmick that you mentioned earlier).

LegacyUser

Christine said: Prayers for Australia.

LegacyUser

Lindsay Adams said: Yes all prayers are needed at the moment. Thank you Christine.

LegacyUser

Brett said: Christine

'G'Day' from 'Down Under'.

Prayers are being said in our "Temples", 'Down Under'.

And, the "Pacific Area Presidency" has asked us (from 'Down Under') to be mindful of those in these catastrophic conditions to be in our Prayers; and, if we desire, included in our "Fast Offering", this coming "Fast" Sunday.

Brett

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