Relationship

[Sara]

I have a problem with 3 siblings. Their father is my 4G Uncle. Their mother is my 1C3R. The children are listed as 2C2R rather than 1C4R. Apparently Reunion is using the mother's relationship rather than the father's. Is there anything I can do to correct this or is this a bug? Don't know if it's relevant or not but the father had 3 wives. This is the middle one and all the step-siblings are listed correctly.

[Blaise A. Darveaux]

Re: Relationship

I guess I'll take a whack at this.

First point, I will call your 4G Uncle your 3G Grand Uncle since he is the brother of one or your 3G Grandparents. It is easier for me to keep things straight if I use the same number of G's in the same generation.

Second point, we don't know if this is an Interfamily Marriage or not. An Interfamily Marriage is one where both spouses are blood relatives of each other. They are both blood relatives of you, but one could be on your father's side and the other on your mother's side and not related to each other at all.

Third point, you are correct that by your 3G Grand Uncle his kids would be your 1C4R and by their mother they would be your 2C2R. I think the 2C2R connection is closer then the 1C4R connection because the Great Great grandkids of your 1C4R relationship are your 5th cousins, but the grandkids of your 2C2R relationship are your 4th cousins. Therefore, I am going to assume that Reunion "choose" to use the closer of the two relationships that it found.

Final point, to answer your question, I don't know if there is a way to control which description of your relationship will be used. I couldn't find anything in the manual and I am not a certified genealogist so I don't know which would be the more proper one to use.

[Sara]

Re: Relationship

Thank you for your reply. You've made me think again about relationships. In this instance the spouses were not related although there are several in my family tree that were. I made a decision about a year ago that I had to narrow my research so would only include 1C. So now I would have to omit these 3 siblings while their step-siblings would remain. Oh, well, I'll just keep them and put a note in their record stating that they're 1C4R through their father. Thanks again.