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johnbrobb

Journal Report Format Orphans Half-siblings

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When the husband and father dies and the wife remarries, the TMG Journal descendancy report format (the one which emulates such publications as NEHGR, TAG etc.) doesn't show her children by her second husband, even though they are half siblings of her previous set of children and usually continue to be part of her second marriage family. This creates a gaping hole in the family history.

 

It might be argued that since Journal descendancy format is nominally a series of linked sketches of individuals (usually, but not necessarily, male), the children of the spouse of such a person don't belong in the sketch, because they are not his descendants. But we modern genealogists have learned (I learned originally from the introductory material to Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration series) that for analytical purposes, every family should be reconstructed in full, complete with hypothesized birth dates for each child, even where evidence is lacking. As in the manner of scientific theorizing, this creates an extensive hypothetical structure which can the more easily be tested by exposing it to new evidence, refined in the light of that evidence, then exposed again. Karl Popper, the pre-eminent philosopher of science of our era, has shown that the bolder the hypothesis, the better, because it is the more easily falsified, thus accelerating the advance of positive knowledge.

 

Perhaps even more important, nearly all of us would agree, I'm sure, that the enterprise most of us are engaged in is the reconstruction of family history, not the mere tracking of bloodlines.

 

Thus, the subject sketches of the modern journal report, where the subject is the launcher of a family of his/her own blood, also admit adopted children; report any subsequent marriage(s) of his/her spouse; and they also include the children of that spouse by a subsequent marriage. Examples of the latter will be found at NEGHGR 157(Jul2003)205-206, and TAG 81(Jul2006)218-219.

 

But the TMG Journal format does not follow the standard family-oriented implementation of Journal format in this respect, and at present the half-siblings of a family can only be added, laboriously, after the fact, during the wordprocessor editing phase. Moreover, this task has to be performed for each such family (and all the families in one's database with children of a second spousal marriage therefore need to be itemized and tracked), and repeated every time a new version of the report is created. If this is not done, the Journal format, at least for these families (which are admittedly somewhat infrequent) fails of its purpose.

 

I therefore believe that incorporating the children of a subsequent marriage of the non-subject spouse into the sketch of the subject spouse, is a necessary addition to the TMG "to do" list.

 

John Barrett Robb

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When the husband and father dies and the wife remarries, the TMG Journal descendancy report format (the one which emulates such publications as NEHGR, TAG etc.) doesn't show her children by her second husband, even though they are half siblings of her previous set of children and usually continue to be part of her second marriage family. This creates a gaping hole in the family history.

 

....

 

Perhaps even more important, nearly all of us would agree, I'm sure, that the enterprise most of us are engaged in is the reconstruction of family history, not the mere tracking of bloodlines.

 

....

 

I therefore believe that incorporating the children of a subsequent marriage of the non-subject spouse into the sketch of the subject spouse, is a necessary addition to the TMG "to do" list.

 

John Barrett Robb

 

The product we are using is The Master GENEALOGIST. Bob has a preference of wanting to follow the genes, the blood lines.

 

Yes, we can use TMG to keep track of family history and even report much of it fairly correctly if we wish. But you are asking to go a fair bit beyond blood lines with your proposed Family Journal Report. And there is the question of how far you want to go with this family history thing. For example, do we include the children of the wife's previous husband's first common-law wife, etc.? Those children could have lived in your relatives family. While such occurrences are rare, the program should have a policy for how it would handle the unusual family groupings.

 

In any case, I support the idea that TMG should make it easier to look at and report Family History, as opposed to strictly genealogy. Including ways to properly report adoptions, half and step siblings, etc. would, I think, be a useful improvement to TMG.

 

Pierce

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In any case, I support the idea that TMG should make it easier to look at and report Family History, as opposed to strictly genealogy. Including ways to properly report adoptions, half and step siblings, etc. would, I think, be a useful improvement to TMG.

 

Pierce

 

I agree Pierce.

 

Whilst not everyone may wish to have this information included I would be happy to see it as one of the optional fields to include when generating reports

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:rolleyes:When the husband and father dies and the wife remarries, the TMG Journal descendancy report format (the one which emulates such publications as NEHGR, TAG etc.) doesn't show her children by her second husband, even though they are half siblings of her previous set of children and usually continue to be part of her second marriage family. This creates a gaping hole in the family history. John Barrett Robb

 

GENEALOGY IS MUCH MORE THAN TRACKING BLOODLINES. IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT REPORTS ON FAMILIES INCLUDE ALL ASPECTS OF THAT FAMILY, INCLUDING ADOPTIONS AND SIBLINGS OF SECOND MARRIAGES. TMG SHOULD BE EXPANDED TO ALLOW THE PUBLICATION OF FAMILY HISTORY TYPE REPORTS WHICH JOHN BARRETT ROBB DESCRIBES SO WELL.

EDWARD L. STROTHER

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