DNA +new birth father information +using Fan chart etc

LegacyUser

Linda Dungy Ray said: Some of us get pretty jolting shocks when our DNA results come back (through multiple companies sometimes). Those of us with this scenario are not given the privilege of using some of the tools in FS. I love my adopted father and wouldn't change that for the world. But I'd sure like to be able to use fan chart to see my new birth father's family.
Connecting me to BF, selecting him as preferred father, adding a fake marriage event even since I don't know the story yet, selecting the couple as preferred birth parents, selecting the new BF as mother's preferred spouse ... none of those actions changed what I can see (and therefore use) on fan chart.
What is being done to fix this? It's an all too common problem that's only going to get bigger. I already can't use a couple of 3rd party programs unless something gets fixed in FS to take care of this. If solution is in a KA, I'm not seeing it.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: It does appear that changing the preferred parents changes which parents are seen on the fan chart. I wonder why you can't make it do that?

If I start with one set of parents as preferred:



and click view tree, I see:



If I go back to the person page and change the preferred parent:



the fan chart changes parents:



Of course, the obvious solution to what you want to see is to put your newly found birth father in the center of the fan chart (as shown in this beta site mock up) since it is his family you want to see:



(However, I do think your idea is a good one. The fan chart lets you switch between spouses. It would be good if one could switch between parents right there.)

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Linda,

Using Gordon's suggestions above should work for you. It does for me. However, it is a nuisance changing preferred parents in one screen and then going back and forth to the fan chart. For this reason, I use the horizontal pedigree charts since you can flip them back and forth without leaving the chart.

LegacyUser

Carolyn Joy Webber said: Thanks, Gordon for the suggested workaround.

Jeff, your suggestion to use the horizontal pedigree charts is also a useful idea.

I have worked with many people that are adopted, have misattributed paternity, or other situations where they have a double set of parents. Linda's point is very valid. As adoptees work to develop their recently discovered family line, it is difficult when the system doesn't let them make the choice of who they want to search for. Discovering biological families can be a difficult and emotional experience. I would like to see a change to make it possible to change parents in the fan chart.

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Carolyn,

I agree. It would be useful to add "parent selection buttons" to the fan chart and the portrait type pedigree charts so that they would behave the same as the landscape pedigree chart does (see image below). That would make the handling of these multiple parent circumstances consistent across the FS Tree displays.

One thing that I really like is that you already have the ability to document these different circumstances in the FSFT. My Great Grandmother Cecil Fern Santee was born to her unwed mother Birdie Ivalee Thurman and her birth surname name recorded on her records was Thurman. Later, after Birdie married Joseph Santee, He formally adopted Cecil as his own and hence her surname name was was changed to Santee. The following images show how easily this is documented in the FSFT:





Note that the FamilySearch FamilyTree is intended to show "family" relationships in the context of the family sealing ordinances being done in the temples. This is a slightly different intent than documented trees have typically shown. For example, since Wm Woodward and Birdie Thurman (Cecil's biological parents) were never together for any real length of time and there was no formal relationship there (he disappeared around the time of Cecil's birth) the documented record in the FSFT does NOT show Wm Woodward as having any kind of "Couple Relationship" with Birdie Thurman. By documenting it this way, Ordinances Ready will not hand those names off to be sealed in the temple.

Anyway, although complicated parent/child relationships can be documented in the FSFT, their visibility is a little lacking. Additions to the tree that we are talking about (i.e., easily flipping the display between the various parents) could help in making it more useful in these situations.

LegacyUser

Linda Dungy Ray said: Got it to change finally. I don't think I did anything I haven't done repeatedly, refreshing and all, but this time, it stuck. Maybe I missed a step before...
Changed preferred spouses for my mother, and preferred parents for me. I have to remember to switch it back when I am done each time, because I love my adoption father. He IS my Dad. I don't know my birth father yet, just his name and don't want that relationship to be preferred except when I am actively working in the line. Maybe I'll do a screen shot to work from and switch back straight away.
Yep, this needs to be a lot easier.
Those in the know. Did I need to make both the spousal relationship and the and child-parent relationship preferred?