Adding child to two family lines

[derek08]

My ancestors are making life hard for me! I have just discovered that my G grandfather was the result of a union between his mother and another man in the village.

I want his page to show his actual parents but when I 'add existing father' it adds him to their family and therefore gives the impression that the wife is his mother.

Both families are important in my line and I also want to preserve the 'relationship' field.

Hope I am explaining this OK, thanks for any help.

[Steve Goodwin]

Typically when you select "Add existing father" it should read "person a" is currently the child of "father a" and "mother a" - it will then ask if you want to move the child or duplicate it. Moving it should "move" the child's record to the new father. Duplicating it will create two separate family links. The first link is the original family relationship and the same child will be linked to the other relationship without duplicating the child.

What you have mentioned should work - unless you inadvertently selected the same person as his own father. You should be linking the child with the name of the known biological father.

[marnen]

You need to create a family listing this man's biological father as his father and the biological mother as his mother (and put the marriage status as Unmarried). Then you can add him as a child of this family.

There are other ways to do it, but "existing father" is not one of them unless the biological father is already in your family file.

[derek08]

You need to create a family listing this man's biological father as his father and the biological mother as his mother (and put the marriage status as Unmarried). Then you can add him as a child of this family.

There are other ways to do it, but "existing father" is not one of them unless the biological father is already in your family file.

Thanks for this but I am still a bit confused unfortunately. Luckily I am working in a duplicate family file because it is now a right mess!

All the various characters are already in the file:
child H linked to his biological mother A and her husband B
the biological father C and his family are in the file as unrelated persons at present

I'd like to set H as the son of A & C but still retain the relationships to his original brothers and sisters, and then to his new ones also.

thanks in advance

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

All the various characters are already in the file:
child H linked to his biological mother A and her husband B
the biological father C and his family are in the file as unrelated persons at present

I'd like to set H as the son of A & C but still retain the relationships to his original brothers and sisters, and then to his new ones also.

You want three family cards:
#1: A & C (marked as unmarried), with H as child
#2: A & B, with H linked, and child status set to adopted or step child
#3: C & family, with H linked, and child status set to adopted or step child

(When you link H to the second and third family cards, you will get a dialog box saying he's already a child in another family, and asking if you want to cancel, duplicate, or move his button. The answer you want is "duplicate".)

When Reunion calculates relationships, it will use only the "preferred" parents. If you want to show relationships to both sets of siblings, you probably want A&C to be the preferred set.

[AE Palmer]

Thanks for this but I am still a bit confused unfortunately. Luckily I am working in a duplicate family file because it is now a right mess!

All the various characters are already in the file:
child H linked to his biological mother A and her husband B
the biological father C and his family are in the file as unrelated persons at present

I'd like to set H as the son of A & C but still retain the relationships to his original brothers and sisters, and then to his new ones also.

thanks in advance

Question. Are we dealing with:

1) one mother and two husbands?
2) two different sets of parents?

Your answer will determine the solution required.

Situation-1 is a matter of creating a DUPLICATE link from the child to the biological father (C).

Situation-2 requires a DUPLICATE link -- from the child to the biological parents (A-C).

In both cases, you will keep the link to the adoptive connection (A-B).

BTW, you can read more about this process in the manual under step-children.

[STEVE]

You want three family cards:
#1: A & C (marked as unmarried), with H as child
#2: A & B, with H linked, and child status set to adopted or step child
#3: C & family, with H linked, and child status set to adopted or step child

(When you link H to the second and third family cards, you will get a dialog box saying he's already a child in another family, and asking if you want to cancel, duplicate, or move his button. The answer you want is "duplicate".)

When Reunion calculates relationships, it will use only the "preferred" parents. If you want to show relationships to both sets of siblings, you probably want A&C to be the preferred set.

Dennis,

Sorry, but NO! Two cards only!
#1: A & C (marked as unmarried), with H as child;
#2: A & B, with H linked, and child status set to adopted or step child

Reunion will automatically, and properly, link the child to any family that C is a part of. Card 1 shows the original relationship that created the child. card two would show the marriage of A & B, nothing more --- until B adopts the child or declares the stepchild his. At this point card two becomes the custodial family. C can start 15 other families and do as he wishes. Because he is not custodial, H will NOT appear on any of his family cards other than #1. Note: If B does not accept custody of H, then the child does not get entered on card #2.

STEVE

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Dennis,

Sorry, but NO! Two cards only!
#1: A & C (marked as unmarried), with H as child;
#2: A & B, with H linked, and child status set to adopted or step child

STEVE

The third card is required for C & his wife (call her D) and their children.