Relatives & Relationships

The Source Person for Relationships

What Is the Relatives Sidebar?

Clearing Existing Relationships
Relationships in the Family View

Relationships in Other Sidebars
What Relatives are Identified?
How Many Relatives are Identified?
Descendant and Ascendant Cousins

Half Relatives

Settings for the Relatives Sidebar
Interfamily Marriages

Finding the Relationship Between Two People


Sidebars

The List Window

Marking People in the Relatives Sidebar

Sharing the Relatives Sidebar (Printing, Emailing, etc.)

The Source Person for Relationships

The source person is the person to whom everybody is related. To make somebody the source person — i.e. to identify the relatives of a person — click his Person menu button (in the upper-right corner of his button) and choose Find Relatives.

relatives
relationship
relationships

When you do this, two things will happen:

  1. The sidebar will switch to Relatives. source person
  2. In the family view, the relationship of people to the source person will appear either inside the buttons for people, or in the list of fields under the husband and wife on each family record (if they're related to the source person). If you don't see the relationships, then the family view must be configured to include them. Learn how.

Tip: Three handy shortcuts for identifying relatives of any person...

As you add, delete, link, or unlink people in your family file, their relationship to the current source person, if any, is automatically calculated "on the fly." However, if your family file is so large that the identification of relationships seems to slow down data entry, then you can disable this feature by clicking the Change button at the top of the Relatives sidebar and then unchecking the button Identify relationships "on the fly."

source person source person source person

What Is the Relatives Sidebar?

The Relatives sidebar is a list of relatives of the current "source person" whose name appears at the top. (Some refer to this as a relationships or kinship report.) The list is neatly divided by relationship; so, for example, all "1st Cousins" are grouped together, all first cousins once removed (1C1R) are grouped together, etc. And each of these subgroups is titled and shows the number of people in each group. In the example below, you can see at a glance that there are 8 great uncles and 3 great aunts.

One way to change the source person is to click the Change button at the top of the Relatives sidebar.

Clicking the Change button at the top of the Relatives sidebar offers the option to identify relatives for...

Click the Identify button and Reunion will identify the relatives, list them in the Relatives sidebar, and label them in the family view.

Tip: To open the family view for the current "source" person, you can click the name of the source person at the top of the Relatives sidebar.

To show relatives in the List window, where you have the ability to set up multiple columns to show more fields, click the List button (in the bottom bar, under the Relatives sidebar).

Great Aunts and Granduncles

Some people refer to the aunt of your father or mother as a "Great Aunt." Some call this person a "Grandaunt."

Some people refer to the uncle of your father or mother as a "Great Uncle." Some call this person a "Granduncle."

Reunion lets you decide how to label these people when relatives are identified. To use the terms "Grandaunt" and "Granduncle"...

  1. Click Relatives in the Sidebar list (to show the Relatives sidebar).
  2. Click the Change button at the top of the Relatives sidebar.
  3. Enable the button Use "Granduncle" and "Grandaunt."
Clearing Existing Relationships

To clear (empty altogether) the Relatives sidebar and the Relationship fields in buttons without calculating new relationships...

  1. Click Relatives in the Sidebar list (to show the Relatives sidebar).
  2. Click the Change button at the top of the list.
  3. Click Clear Relationship Fields.

This does not affect any data or links in the family file; it simply clears the Relatives sidebar and also the relationship labels in person buttons.

Relationships in the Family View

As you navigate through a family file, you'll see that each relative to the source person has a relationship label inside their button.

Note: to see relationships in buttons, there needs to be a "source person" for the identification of relationships. If you haven't yet selected a source person for relationships, click here to learn how.

By default, the relationships appear inside the husband and wife buttons in the family view (the "source couple"); however, you can also insert the relationships in buttons for children and/or parents.

To show relationships in the family view...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Select Children, Couple, or Parents, depending on where you want the relationships to appear (you can put relationships in all three, if you want).
  4. If you selected Couple in step 3, then select whether you want the relationship fields inside the couple buttons or under the couple buttons.
  5. Click the Add Field button (near the bottom) to add the relationship field. Learn more.
  6. You can drag the relationship field up/down to put it exactly where you want it; also, a special color may be applied to relationship fields. Learn more.

Relationship fields can't be edited directly.

Relationships in Other Sidebars

Sidebars, which typically include only names and abbreviated dates, can also include relationships appended to each line. This lets you see, at a glance, how people in the sidebar are related to the current source person.

Relationships appear in the following sidebars...

The feature is turned on/off via a button in the Relatives Settings window. To see this button...

  1. Click Relatives in the Sidebar list (to show the Relatives sidebar).
  2. Click the Settings button (under the list of Relatives).
  3. Click the Include Relationships in Lists button.
What Relatives Are Identified?

Reunion identifies relatives by blood and by marriage to a source person.

Let's take a closer look at relatives by marriage. Here are the people for whom relationships are identified...

  1. All spouses of the starting person's siblings, descendants, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews - aka the "in-laws." For example...

    Spouse of daughter - aka son in-law.
    Spouse of uncle - aka non-blood aunt.
    Etc.

  2. All spouses of direct-line ancestors of the starting person are identified. This would be the step families. For example...
  3. Step mother - aka spouse of father.
    Step grandfather - aka spouse of grandmother.
    Etc.
    Note: the spouses for a grandfather will appear like this (assuming that the spouses for the people in question are in sequential order — earliest spouse's family is listed first, most recent is last):
    1. Spouse of grandfather.
    2. Grandmother (the direct line ancestor).
    3. Step grandmother.

  4. All relatives for the starting person's spouses are calculated. This would be in-laws and step-families depending on the relationship. For example...
  5. Step son - aka son of spouse.
    Step granddaughter - aka granddaughter of spouse.
    Father of spouse - aka father in-law.
    Sister of spouse - aka sister in-law.
    Spouse of aunt of spouse - aka spouse of sister of mother in-law.
    Etc.

People who are related both by marriage and blood are identified by their blood relationship. For example, if you are a second cousin to your spouse, your spouse is identified as a second cousin — even though he or she is also a relative by marriage.

People who descend from two different lines of the same ancestor will be identified by the closest relationship between the person and the ancestor.

Reunion identifies relationships based on how people are linked together in your family file. For example, if you accidentally link somebody as a child of the wrong parents, the child's relationship will be identified as a child of the parents on the family record where she appears.

See also Relationships for Duplicate Children.

How Many Relatives are Identified?

When Reunion calculates relationships, all blood relatives are included to the following levels:

Some relationships are abbreviated for space and simplicity. For example...

GG Grandfather
=
great great grandfather
5G Grandfather
=
great great great great great grandfather
4C2R
=
fourth cousin, twice removed

Descendant and Ascendant Cousins

A first cousin once removed is a term that could describe either the child of your first cousin or the child of your great-aunt. We thought it would be helpful to distinguish the two. Thus, cousins in the descendancy include an asterisk (*) to distinguish from cousins in the ascendancy.

asterisk asterisks asterisks ascending cousin descending cousin

For example, the child of your first cousin is called a cousin in the descendancy — your 1C1R*. To understand the difference, it may help to think of this person as a descendant of a full cousin.

The child of your great-aunt is a cousin in the ascendancy — your 1C1R. In this case, the person is actually an ancestor of one of your full cousins — your second cousin.

Half Relatives

Two people have a "half" relationship if they have a single common ancestor who had two unions (typically, marriages). One of the people is a descendant of one of the marriages, while the other person is a descendant of the other marriage. Two people have a "full" relationship if their common ancestors are a couple.

This diagram, on Wikipedia, should help to illustrate.

Settings for the Relatives Sidebar

Click the Settings button in the bottom bar (under the list of Relatives) to see a window with several options for customizing a relative list.

The Include section has several buttons...

The first group lets you include: All People, Marked People, or Unmarked People.

The Relatives section (bottom of the Relatives Settings window) lets you further refine and filter the list in interesting ways. You can select groups of ancestors to include in the list, and also set the maximum number of generations to include.

These settings only apply to the list of relatives; they do not affect how relationships are shown in the family view, reports, and charts.

When you have configured the buttons in Relatives Settings window to include the relatives you want in the list, click the Update button at the bottom to rebuild the relative list.

Interfamily Marriages

An "interfamily marriage" occurs when a person is related, by blood, to his or her spouse. If the ancestry of each person in the marriage is complete (in the Reunion family file), then a family will exist at the intersection where the direct-line ancestors meet. This is sometimes referred to as the "Common Ancestor" — although, more correctly, it refers to a couple.

To create a list of interfamily marriages...

  1. Select Find > Advanced Find in the Navbar.
  2. Set up a condition like this...



    (Note: The Interfamily Marriage item is in the Attributes submenu.)
  3. Click Find.

If Reunion finds any interfamily marriages, each couple will appear in the Results sidebar. If you navigate to the family record for any couple on the Results list, you may assume that the two people, typically husband and wife, are related somehow. (To find out how, skip to the next section.)

With large family files, creating a list of interfamily marriages can take a while. Keep in mind that the list of interfamily marriages is like any other Results list. Once you create a list, you can save the list and recall it anytime, even after creating new lists of interfamily marriages.

Finding the Relationship Between Two People

Reunion will find the relationship between any two people, related by blood or marriage, and instantly...

 

To find the relationship between two people...

  1. Choose Find > Find Relationship in the Navbar on the left. The Find Relationship panel appears.
  2. Select two people. You'll see a spot for Person 1 and Person 2. One way to select people is to drag and drop anybody from any sidebar or List window.

    Or, use the blue menu buttons to select people from...
  3. The relationship will instantly be found and displayed whenever either spot is changed.


Reunion will show...

  1. How Person 2 is related to Person 1.
  2. Who is the common ancestor (if any).
  3. How the common ancestor is related to Person 1.
  4. How the common ancestor is related to Person 2.


Using the Find Relationship Features

Sharing the Relationship Tree

Several features appear in the Share button, at the bottom of the Find Relationship panel...


Note: if Person 1 and Person 2 are not blood related, the buttons described above will not appear. Instead the message "No relationship." will appear in red.

Note: In extremely huge family files and/or family files containing many interfamily marriages, the Find Relationship feature may take a while to show you the relationship. If this impacts your family file, the default behavior can be overridden by selecting Show 'Find Relationship' Button from either of the Person menus (see illustration below). When this item is checked, anytime the Find Relationship panel is opened or anytime a new person is selected for Person 1 or Person 2, you'll see a Find Relationship button which must be clicked to invoke the feature.

Who Appears When Selecting Find Relationship?

When opening the Find Relationship panel, Reunion remembers the last two people for whom a relationship was evaluated. To override this behavior and automatically use the husband and wife in the current family view, select Always Start With Current Couple from one of the Person menus. (See illustration below.) While this item is checked, Reunion will always open the Find Relationship panel with the current husband and wife.

Multiple Relationships Between Two People

If two people are blood-related in multiple ways, the Find panel will have two arrow buttons for stepping through the different relationships and common ancestors of the two source people. If only one relationship is found, these buttons will not appear.

Blood relationship(s) will be take precedence over spouse relationship. Put another way, if two people are related by blood, the blood relationship will be reported; not the spouse relationship. If no blood relationship is found, then Reunion will look for a relationship by spouse/marriage.

When a chart is created (showing the relationship between two people), it only reflects the currently displayed relationship.

Finding the Relationship Between a Husband and Wife

As described in the previous section, Reunion will make a list of interfamily marriages — couples (husbands and wives) who are blood-related to each other. Using that feature (finding and creating a list of interfamily marriages) together with the feature described in this section (finding the relationship between two people) it's easy to see how a husband and wife are related to each other.

Follow these steps...

  1. Select Find > Advanced Find in the Navbar.
  2. Select Interfamily Marriages from the presets list.
  3. Click Find and each interfamily marriage (couple) appears in the Results sidebar.
  4. Drag and drop one of the couples from the Results sidebar into one of the two "spots" (Person 1 or Person 2) in the Find relationship panel (Reunion will inject both names).