Consecutive marriages, same couple.

[lduet]

I have recently encountered instances where the same couple married, divorced and remarried without an intervening marriage. Has anyone encountered this and what was your method of entering the second (and possibly third) marriage?

[llbertino]

Re: Consecutive marriages, same couple.

I have recently encountered instances where the same couple married, divorced and remarried without an intervening marriage. Has anyone encountered this and what was your method of entering the second (and possibly third) marriage?

I have a similar problem: a couple married in a civil ceremony, then 5 years later married in a Catholic ceremony (a child was born after the civil ceremony). How to handle this?

[Deb]

Re: Consecutive marriages, same couple.

I have recently encountered instances where the same couple married, divorced and remarried without an intervening marriage. Has anyone encountered this and what was your method of entering the second (and possibly third) marriage?

Hi Louis,

I noticed your post remained unanswered.

The process of adding a consecutive re-marriage would go like this...

1. Open your family file to the family view showing, let's say, Jack and Sue as husband and wife.

2. Select "Add New Spouse" from the Add Person menu button above the Jack's name and enter "delete me" in the First & Mid Name field for that spouse. (You can enter any name for this spouse as you will be deleting her later on. Simply, make a note of the name being entered.)

3. Then, click Done.

4. Next, Select "Add Spouse from the Sidebar" from the Add Person menu button above the Jack's name.

5. Then, locate Sue in the People sidebar and drag her name from the sidebar onto Jack's name in the family view.

6. Next, click "Add" when asked if you want to add Sue as a spouse of Jack.

(If you find that Jack and Sue re-married more than twice, repeat steps 2 through 6. Otherwise, proceed to step 7.)

7. The next step would be to delete the fake spouse added in step 2.

To do this, click on the Person Menu button (the red triangle) beside Jack's name and select Spouses & Children -> Edit Spouses.

The window that opens will list all of Jack's spouses. Select the one you want to delete and click "Remove Spouse" and, then, "Delete Family Record."

Finally, click "Save."

I hope you find this information helpful:-)

PS... The fake spouse still remains in your family file as of now, but linked to nobody. You can choose to keep her there for future use or delete her using the Clipboard (or a variety of other ways described in the manual). Search your manual for "delete people" for a listing of ways to delete people from your family file. (To access the manual, open your family file and choose Help -> Contents or click on the "?" found in the lower-left corner of the Reunion window.)

[Deb]

Re: Consecutive marriages, same couple.

I have a similar problem: a couple married in a civil ceremony, then 5 years later married in a Catholic ceremony (a child was born after the civil ceremony). How to handle this?

One way to handle this would be to follow the steps listed in my reply to "lduet." (I.e., create a separate record for each marriage.)

If they were not separated in between marriages, another possible way to handle this would be to record one marriage in the usual Marriage field and record the other marriage in the Notes field (or create a new Marriage event field for the other marriage).

If two separate records are created for each marriage, I would add the child on the record showing the civil marriage. And, if you want that child to appear on both family records, duplicate the child button onto the second family record by following these steps...

1. Begin at the family view showing the civil marriage and the child at the bottom of the family view.

2. Open the Clipboard sidebar on the right. (I.e., click on "People" at the top of the sidebar and select "Clipboard.")

3. "Option-drag" (i.e., press and hold the "Option" key as you drag) the child's name into the Clipboard.

4. Go to the family view for the Catholic marriage. (This can be done via the Person Menu button as explained in my previous reply to "lduet.")

5. Drag the child from the Clipboard into the Children area of that family view and click "Add" when asked if you want to add this child.

6. Next, click "Duplicate" when asked if you want to move or duplicate this child.

Additional information about duplicating a child button can be found in your manual by searching for "duplicate child." To access the manual, open Reunion and choose Help -> Contents (or click on the "?" in the lower-left corner of any Reunion window).

I hope you find this information helpful:-)

[llbertino]

Re: Consecutive marriages, same couple.

If they were not separated in between marriages, another possible way to handle this would be to record one marriage in the usual Marriage field and record the other marriage in the Notes field (or create a new Marriage event field for the other marriage).

Thanks for your suggestions; using the Notes field seemed to be the easier solution in this situation.

[TeriPettit]

Re: Consecutive marriages, same couple.

I make two separate marriage records only if at least one of them married a different spouse in between their two marriages to each other, and the couple did not have children during both of their periods of marriage. (Note: you do not really have to create a fake spouse and then delete that record. You can just use "Add Spouse from the Index" from the popup menu of either spouse.)

If there was no intervening marriage to someone else in between, or even if there was but the couple had children from both marriages, I prefer the "custom event" method. (When you create separate family records, the children from each family get treated as half-siblings even though they share both parents, which isn't cool.)

I have defined two custom events, "Temporary Divorce", and "Remarriage" (defined under Event Preferences/Family Events.) The date and location of the divorce and remarriage can then go in those event fields, while the Notes can contain whatever you usually put in there about all the marriages and divorces. I leave the marital status at the default of "None", unless they had another divorce after their remarriage. The marital status thus reflects only the final status between the couple. I also set the preferences to include these events in any report or view in which they are not empty.

The main reason I prefer this method is that it enables you to have just one family group sheet (or family card) for the couple, showing all the relevant data about their life together, with all their children related as full siblings. It also makes it easier to do a Find for couples who were divorced and remarried, which is harder to do if they are separate family records.

The main disadvantage is that these "remarriage" events do not get recognized as marriage events for the purposes of searches, such as finding all marriages in a given county. Also it can slightly confuse the time line in narrative reports, since in the case of a remarriage with a different spouse in between, the narrative will mention the remarriage event (in the portion of the report describing the first marriage) before it mentions the marriage to the intervening spouse. Finally, in the case of an intervening spouse for the wife, her "married surname" will show up as being that of the intermediate husband, since that is the last marriage for her that the system recognizes as being a marriage. These disadvantages are enough that they push the pro/con balance towards two family records if all the couple's children were born during only one of their marriage spans. But if they were not, I consider those inconveniences a price worth paying to get all the couple's children collected on the same family group sheet.

[Deb]

Re: Consecutive marriages, same couple.

...(Note: you do not really have to create a fake spouse and then delete that record. You can just use "Add Spouse from the Index" from the popup menu of either spouse.)...

Teri's statement is true for Reunion 9 (and earlier versions).

However, in Reunion 10, if two separate (but consecutive) family records are to be created for the same two people, it is necessary to add a fake spouse in between their marriages.

And, as explained my previous post, that fake spouse can be deleted later.