I’ve set the default couple relationship to “spouse/spouse” instead of “husband/wife”

iFamily does offer the option of an “Associated Person.” That is, not a parent/child, but someone you still want to draw a line to. I’ve used it twice. Once for a slave, and once for a business partner.

An “associated person” can also be associated with multiple people, however, they don’t seem to appear on most of the reports.

“it’s genealogy software. Not family history software”. True dat!

So, should there be a separate ‘family history software’? At least one of the major companies hooks us by using the word ‘Family’ in its name. And that’s the place where my rant comes from. There doesn’t necessarily have to be two separate categories of software.

BTW Diana, Family Tree Builder displays siblings, half-siblings AND step-siblings on the main page without a fuss! And that’s the joy of this conversation – sharing!

Wow! I re-read all of the comments and the #1 concern is documenting ‘Family’. The software manufacturers need to recognize!

Peace,
“Guided by the Ancestors”

When they were adopted, not only did the children’s last names change, but because they were young, their first names were also changed by the adoptive parents . And then one of the twin girls was given to another family (not legally) to raise and she went by that family’s last name.

I have never been able to settle on whether to call the children by their original given names, or by their adopted names, etc. Maybe I would like to show both set of families, the natural and the adoptive. Is that possible? And on and on. You get the drift!

Yes, family history soft ware needs some modifications when it comes to ways to show extended family relationships.

One of the reason I currently use TMG (the Master Genealogist) is the simple reason that when I am displaying my Grandpa Quick’s screen there is a box labeled “Children” and it shows my mom and her 2 (half) brothers. In other softwares that I’ve used I always had to pick a spouse and it would then display the children of that couple only. My mom and her brothers are a family – they grew up together and never knew anything else really. I like a software that lets me see it like that.

I haven’t experimented much with other types of issues – but I do agree that software companies need to be proactive in addressing them!

I would also like to see the software companies provide an option, where, instead of always having an option of adding a spouse, provide a field for “Never Married.” So, once that is confirmed, a researcher doesn’t keep going around in circles trying to find a possible spouse.

Same goes for providing a field like “Died as Infant” – you don’t always know when the baby died, but the child never reached adulthood. So add that as a database field so a researcher doesn’t keep looking for this person in a census 30 years later. Another good field would be for “died without issue” for childless persons.

A lot could be done to enhance the software programs, all it takes is some thinking outside the box.