Marriage, Family Notes, & Family Events

What Is "Family" Information?

The Marriage Field

Entering or Editing Marriage Information

Documenting Marital Status

Family Notes and Family Events

Assigning Media to Marriage and Family Events

Documenting the Source of Marriage and Family Information

Displaying Family Note and Event Fields

Copying Names to the Clipboard

Sorting Marriages

Children

Defining Family Note and Event Fields

What Is "Family" Information?

Reunion records information about people and families. Some information pertains only to a person (such as birth date or occupation) and is entered/edited in the Edit Person panel. However, some information pertains to a couple, such as a marriage date or divorce date. In Reunion, information that pertains to couples is referred to as "family" information and includes marriage details (marriage date, place, and marital status), family events, and family notes. This information is entered/edited in the Edit Family panel.

The Marriage Field

The marriage field is centered above and between a couple's names in the family view. It is always displayed, and includes: marriage date, marriage place, marital status, status date, status place, and length of marriage in years.

Note: There are some situations where the length of marriage will not appear in the family view...

Subsequent marriages do not impact the calculation of marriage length. I.e., Reunion does not assume that because a person married a second time that the first marriage ended.

Length of marriage only appears in the family view; it's not included in reports.

A Visual Clue for Family Multimedia, Notes, and/or Events

Small icons appear at the right side of the marriage field to indicate the presence of notes, events, or multimedia attached to the current couple (or family). These icons are clickable. For example, a shortcut to open the Edit Person > Notes panel is clicking the little notes icon inside the marriage field.

For purposes of display in the family view, the width of the marriage field will vary, depending on the width of the family view. So, depending on the size of your screen and the length of your entries, partial entries could be displayed. However, your entire entries for marriage date and place will be saved and included in reports and charts.

Entering or Editing Marriage Information

To enter or edit marriage date, place, and status, click the marriage field in the family view or choose Edit > Family > Marriage. Either way, the Marriage section of the Edit Family panel will appear. This is where you enter a marriage date and place.

When this happens, the highlighted item in the navbar will become "Edit Family."

A marriage Memo field is also provided for brief notes relating to the marriage. If you need more room on-screen to type a place or memo, double-click the event line in the list and a larger, resizable window will appear.

Documenting Marital Status

If a couple is unmarried or their marriage is considered a common-law marriage, a civil union, or a domestic partnership, this can be documented by...

  1. Choosing Edit > Family > Marriage.
  2. Clicking the Marriage menu button.

If a couple is separated, divorced, or their marriage was annulled, you can document this by...

  1. Choosing Edit > Family > Marriage.
  2. Clicking the Status menu button.

If you select Separation, Divorce, or Annulment, additional fields for this data will appear.

The Marriage section of the Edit Family panel is intended to document the marital status of a couple — not a person. Thus, the Status button is hidden when the Marriage section is opened for a person with no spouse. It would be wrong, for example, to use "Unmarried" where a person appears without a spouse.

If a person never married, this should be documented by clicking the Add pop-up menu (the brown plus icon) over that person's name in the family view and choosing Never Married. The "Never Married" designation is not recorded in the Marriage section of the Edit Family panel. More information is here.

In a nutshell: "Unmarried" refers to a couple. "Never Married" refers to a person.

Note: Instructions for adding additional spouses to a person (if somebody remarries) are here.

Family Notes and Family Events

In Reunion, family notes are free-form text relating to a couple and/or their children. Examples of items that you might enter as family notes include stories and traditions that involve a couple or nuclear family.

Family events are significant occurrences that involve two people (a couple) or perhaps a nuclear family. Family events have two primary elements: a date and place.

Entering or Editing Notes for Families

To record family notes or to edit family notes you've already entered, choose Edit > Family > Notes. This will open the Notes section of the Edit Family panel. Family note fields work exactly like person note fields.

Entering or Editing Events for Families

To record a family event or to edit a family event you've already entered, choose Edit> Family > Events. This will open the Events section of the Edit Family window. Family event fields work exactly like person event fields.

Displaying Family Note and Event Fields

Family event fields and family note fields do not appear in the family view; however, in most report layouts you'll have the option to include these fields.

Assigning Media to Marriage and Family Events

Assigning (or linking) media to marriage and family events works exactly the same as linking media to person events and facts. Learn more

Documenting the Source of Marriage and Family Information

Citing sources for marriage and family information works exactly like documenting sources of person events, facts, notes, etc. Learn more.

Saving Your Changes

When finished entering or editing family events, notes, or marriage items, exit the Edit Family panel by clicking Done, pressing the Return or Enter key, or choosing an item in the navbar or sidebar. Reunion will save any changes.

Copying Names to the Mac Clipboard

In the Edit Family window, Control-clicking on the couple's name near the top will show a menu with options to copy text details into to the Clipboard.

Here are examples of the text that would go into the Clipboard...

Names
George Washington SNYDER & Alma Elaine RICE

Names and dates
George Washington SNYDER (1900-1970) & Alma Elaine RICE (1900-1975)

Names, dates and marriage information
Brian Ray DRESSLER (1967-) & Lisa Jane FERSTER (1968-)
Marriage: 25 Jun 1987
mp: Holmesville, AZ