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Neil Grantham

Relationship Tools

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I just wondered.

Why are the Relationship tools all using 'Blood' relationships?

 

I use the Option to show a persons relationship to me, and would like it to show 'Wife', 'Father-in-law' etc.

 

Anyone else?

 

Just a personal 'wish'

 

Neil

Edited by Neil Grantham

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I just wondered.

Why are the Relationship tools all using 'Blood' relationships?

 

I use the Option to show a persons relationship to me, and would like it to show 'Wife', 'Father-in-law' etc.

 

Anyone else?

 

Just a personal 'wish'

 

Neil

 

The short answer is that genealogy deals with blood relationships and not social ones.

While it is true that TMG can, in some instances, treat a social relationship as if it were a blood relationship the relationship tools are - and (imho) hopefully will remain - bloodbased.

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The short answer is that genealogy deals with blood relationships and not social ones.

While it is true that TMG can, in some instances, treat a social relationship as if it were a blood relationship the relationship tools are - and (imho) hopefully will remain - bloodbased.

 

That suggests that TMG, as the name implies, is for genealogist following blood lines, but is not so good for family historians.

 

Pierce

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That suggests that TMG, as the name implies, is for genealogist following blood lines, but is not so good for family historians.

 

Pierce

 

 

Even Family Historians have to start with the genealogy of the family; TMG can be used to great effect by Family Historians, as long as they don't ask that the basic principles are violated ( asking for a person to show as both natural child of biological parents and at the same time show as adoptive son of adoptive parents in a descent narrative (or worse- an ancestor report!).

 

;)

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Guest ProudFossil
:wacko: As an example of how convoluted the social relationships can become my wife has a xxx great-granduncle who married a widow. She then died in a few years and he married her daughter, his step daughter. They had one child. If we trace the social linkages he was the grandfather through marriage and the father through blood of the child. He was also the father through marriage and the husband through marriage of the step daughter. And should he be considered the son-in-law of his first wife? What a mess.

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Even Family Historians have to start with the genealogy of the family; TMG can be used to great effect by Family Historians, as long as they don't ask that the basic principles are violated ( asking for a person to show as both natural child of biological parents and at the same time show as adoptive son of adoptive parents in a descent narrative (or worse- an ancestor report!).

 

;)

I think both family historians and genealogists (if they have different goals) must start with social relationships. You start with your social family. Usually that is also your biological family, but not always. If not, they still are likely (but maybe not) the first ones to provide you with information or clues about your biology. If the blood-social family link is further back in your family history, you will normally get to your social family before your biological one, because those records are usually most readily available.

 

As Bob has made clear in the past, TMG is oriented towards the biology of your family. It is still a strong tool for family historians, and there are a number of ways you can record both blood and social family information. Trying to handle both sets of information at the same time certainly complicates the analysis, both in our own minds and for any software that tries to cope with all the complications that we social and sexual creatures can generate.

 

I think that many of us would appreciate any further tools that TMG could provide to help us sort our some of our messes.

 

Pierce

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I just wondered.

Why are the Relationship tools all using 'Blood' relationships?

 

I use the Option to show a persons relationship to me, and would like it to show 'Wife', 'Father-in-law' etc.

 

Anyone else?

 

Just a personal 'wish'

 

Neil

 

You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family. The standard TMG database, reports and charts are meant to record and display familial, ie: genetic, genealogical (blood, though I don’t like the term), relationships. This, alone, is a very big job and is well done by TMG. The following may not be obvious to new users of TMG.

 

The good news:

1. TAGs, like NOTE, give you the ability to link two unrelated people together and describe any sort of reason for doing so. You will see this “note” on either person’s Detail Display while editing or browsing in TMG.

2. TMG (and a good word processor, I use Word 2000) gives you the tools to make any type report or chart that you would like. You can output text reports to a word processor file and box charts to VCF files.

3. You can then copy and paste pieces from these files to make any type of chart or report that is pleasing you.

4. You can even combine box charts and text reports, with a little work and practice, to make any sort of amalgamated document. You can copy and paste portions of a word processor file into a VCF box and move the boxes about or add and delete boxes, lines and images. You can export a completed, hand edited VCF chart to a graphics file and import that into a word processor document.

5. You can add your own images, boxes, lines and descriptions connecting these fragments as desired. You are bound only by your imagination and energy and not by genetic relationships. Standard TMG has done the hardest work for you.

 

A very, very simple example:

You have genetic parents plus a step-father that adopted you. You have everyone’s ancestry in TMG and you want a box chart showing your social relationship to your step-father’s ancestry.

 

Make a VCF Ancestor Box chart on yourself.

Make a VCF Ancestor Box chart on your step-father.

Using VCF, select, Edit>Copy your box from your chart.

Then on your step-father’s chart Edit>Paste your box onto his chart.

Move your box to the bottom of the chart under your step-father’s box.

Connect your box to his with a dotted line of a different color. You can even write the word “adopted” next to this connector line. If you like, you could also copy and paste your wife's and genetic mother’s data at appropriate places. It’s quicker to do, than to describe. The possibilities are endless.

 

Good luck and enjoy the results,

Mike Talbot

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