Children

The Display of Children: Buttons, List
Child Names

Child Colors
Children with Multiple Spouses
Children with Children: a Visual Clue
Adding Children
A New or Existing Child?
Sorting / Renumbering Children
Batch Entry of Children
Changing the Sex of a Child
Bold Children: Showing Direct Lines of Descent
Removing a Child From a Family
Moving a Child Button to a Different Family
No Children
Step-Children
Adopted Children
Duplicate Children

Child Status

The Display of Children

Children are displayed near the bottom of the family view. Reunion supports up to 150 children per couple. Hopefully, that's enough. Clicking a child's name opens the child's family, where he or she appears in the center of the family view.

Child buttons (like parent buttons) may optionally be displayed as a list with columns. This option appears in the Family View Settings. Each family view can be configured differently (i.e., some can show children in a list; some can show children in regular buttons).

Buttons

When children appear in buttons (not in a list), the buttons will be displayed oldest to youngest moving top to bottom and left to right, assuming you have entered children in chronological order. Fortunately, it's easy to renumber children.

Clicking a child button opens the child's family record.

What Appears Inside Child Buttons?

Child buttons contain the child's name and a collection of other fields of information, including the child's preferred picture.

To specify the fields that appear inside child buttons...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Click Children.
  4. Add, remove, or reorder fields in child buttons. Learn more.

In addition to the child's name, preferred picture, and the other fields of information (specified in the family view), each child button contains a little button in the upper-right corner. Clicking this button opens the Person menu, described here. Also, in the lower-right corner is a check-mark button for the purposes of marking or unmarking the child.

Showing More or Less Children

You may need to resize the children's portion of the family view, particularly if your child buttons contain many fields (as configured in the family view settings). To resize the children box, click and drag the area just above the children. The cursor will change to a "resize" cursor when it moves over the area.

resize

If there is insufficient room to display all the children of a couple, clicking the last button will show a pop-up Children window, permitting you to navigate to the families of all children of a couple. This pop-up menu also includes half siblings.

Tip: To see the handy pop-up Children menu shown above (on any family), Control-click anywhere inside the children box, but not directly on a child button.

List

When displayed in a list, children will appear chronologically, top to bottom, assuming you have entered them in chronological order. Fortunately, it's easy to renumber children.

Clicking a child's name in the list opens the child's family record.

One advantage of showing children in a list is the ability to show more fields and information for each child in columnar format, especially if you have a large display and you typically maintain a "wide" family view.

To specify the fields that appear in a list of children...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Click Children.
  4. Add, remove, or reorder fields in child buttons. Learn more.

To resize columns in the child list, move the cursor directly over a column dividing line at the top of a column and drag (the pointer will change into a resize cursor as you do this).

Or, to automatically adjust the widths of columns in the list, Control-click a column title and choose Auto Size Column or Auto Size All Columns.

To change the order of columns in the child list, click and drag the column titles horizontally. The names of children will always be in the first column.

To show more or less children in the list, you can resize the children's portion of the family view by clicking and dragging (up or down) the area just above the children. The pointer will change to a "resize" cursor when it moves over the area.

Managing the Width of Event Columns

When children are shown in a list (in the family view), columns with events (date and place) will appear with two lines: date on top, place on bottom. This feature helps to limit the width of event columns in the list, and thus allows for more fields in the list.

And, using the option shown below (in Settings > Family View > Children) you can also put a field beneath the child's name, rather than dedicating a column to the field.

Child Names

By default, the name that appears on a child button, or in the first column of the children list, is the contents of the First & Mid Name field. This field contains the first and middle names (given names) of people. Thus, to change the name that appears on a child button, or in the children list, you must change the name of the person.

To include last names (surnames) or married names in child buttons, visit the Family View Settings.

Names of people can be up to 255 characters in length, but the text displayed on a child button, or in the first column of the children list, will be limited by the width of the child button, or the width of the first column in the list of children.

The number of characters that appear depend on the width of the child buttons, which depends on the width of the family view and on the number of children in the family. If your display is large, you can resize the Reunion window and/or the family view (make it wider) to show longer child names.

Whether or not the entire name of a child is displayed in the family view, the entire name will be saved and included in reports/charts.

Child Colors

The color of child buttons (like other buttons for people) is determined by the Button color mode.

Children with Multiple Spouses

All buttons for people, including children, appear with the Person menu button — a small near the right edge of the button. When a person has multiple spouses, the little button will appear in red

If you click the red button, a menu appears. You can select a spouse from the Spouses & Children submenu.

If you just click a child in the normal way — if you don't click the Person menu button (the red on a child button) — Reunion will open the family record with the preferred spouse.

Children with Children: a Visual Clue

To make it easier to identify children with or without children, you can select a different color for each situation.

By default, children with children appear with black text. Children without children appear with gray text.

To choose these two colors (as well as the color of fields inside child buttons)...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Click Children.
  4. In the Text section, choose colors from the buttons in the last column (see below).

These color choices also apply to text in menus. For example, in the Siblings submenu of the Person menu.

Adding Children

On each family record, children should be entered starting with the oldest and working down to the youngest. It's easy to renumber children if you forget to do this or if you're not able to establish the order of children when you begin entering them.

To add a child, first navigate to the family showing the parents in the center of the family view, and then use the Add Children button that appears near the middle of the family view, just above the children box.

A New or Existing Child?

As you're about to add a child to a family, you should determine if the person is already entered in the family file. If not, you add a new person. You can search the People sidebar if you're not sure. Or, you can try the Add Child Using Search feature.

If a child is already entered somewhere else in the family file, you should add the child to a family by dragging the child from the People sidebar (or any sidebar) and dropping him directly on the family view (in the children box). Similarly, the Add Child Using Search feature will help you to locate and connect a child (who's already in the family file somewhere) to the current family.

In most cases, you'll be adding new children to your family file. However, if a child already has been entered in the family file, you should not add a new child to the records. Doing so would create duplicate entries for the same person.

One reason why an individual could already be entered is because he is related to somebody else in the family file and was previously entered in some other line of the family. A classic example is when cousins marry (interfamily marriages or "kissing cousins").

Information About a Child

Anytime you add a new child, the Edit Person panel will appear waiting for you to enter the name, dates, and other information for the child. The father's surname will appear, by default, as the surname of each child; however, you may change it if necessary. For married female children, you should use the maiden name. When you're finished, return to the family view by clicking Done or pressing Enter. Remember, you can always come back and make additions or corrections later.

Sorting / Renumbering Children

If you're viewing children in buttons, then the child buttons should be displayed oldest to youngest moving top to bottom and left to right. If you're viewing children in lists, children should be displayed oldest to youngest moving top to bottom in the list. This is necessary so that children appear chronologically correct in reports and charts.

There may be times when, because of a mistake or due to the discovery of new information, the order of children must be altered. There are three ways to put the children in chronological order...

If you use method 1 or 3 above (automatically sorting children) and some birth dates are incomplete or unknown, those children will sort to the top, which may be incorrect. In those cases you can use method 2 to fine-tune the sort.

Sorting Children in All Families

To sort children chronologically in each record in a family file...

  1. Select Change in the navbar.
  2. Select Sort.
  3. Select Children.

Options will be presented to sort the children on...

In records where a child has no birthdate, the options include...

When finished sorting children, Reunion can mark parents whose children were sorted or parents with children that couldn't be sorted (due to missing or incomplete dates).

When the options are set up, click the Sort button.

Batch Entry of Children

If you have minimal information for all the children of a family, you can quickly enter them all in one place: the Children section of the Edit Family panel. To get there, click the Add Children button and choose Batch Entry; or, from the main menu bar, choose Edit > Family > Children.

This panel contains a list of children with columns for first name, last name, birth date, death date, child status, sex, and direct line bold designation. Clicking the Show places button will add columns for birth and death places in the list.

editfam

You can edit the information in these fields; however, if you need to edit additional information for a child, select him in the list of children and then click the Edit Child button; or, double-click the child in the list. Either way, you'll be transported to the Edit Person panel (for the child) where you can enter all the details for the child.

When doing batch entry of children, chances are good that the information for each child came from the same source. It's easy to document the source, automatically, as children are entered. To do this, set up an "automatic source." Learn more.

The Initial Caps and Last Name UPPERCASE buttons are explained here.

Tip: to quickly adjust the widths of all columns in the Edit Family > Children panel, Control click the column titles and choose Auto Size Column or Auto Size All Columns.


Changing the Sex of a Child

There are two ways to change the sex of a child...

Bold Children: Showing Direct Lines of Descent

The purpose of making a child's name bold is to create a visual aid for seeing direct lines of descent from generation to generation — making it easier to navigate through your family file.

bold

Children can be made bold in three ways...

Tip: when using the pop-up Children menu (Control-clicking anywhere inside the children box, but not directly on a child button) the menu of children will show direct-line children in bold text.

Removing a Child From a Family

If the wrong child appears in a family, the easiest way to remove it is to drag the child to the Clipboard sidebar.

Another way to remove a child from a family is to choose Edit > Family > Children, select a child, and click Remove Child. This does not delete the child from the family file — it only removes it (unlinks it) from the current family.

Moving a Child to a Different Family

If you have added a child on the wrong family, you can easily correct the problem without losing any information or altering any other links. Here's how...

  1. Navigate to the family where the person appears as a child.
  2. Drag the child to the Clipboard sidebar.
  3. Navigate to the family where the child should appear.
  4. Drag the child out of the Clipboard and into the children box at the bottom of the family view where the child should appear. This will make the child the last in order. If necessary, it's easy to change the order.
No Children

When you see a family with no children, it can mean one of three things...

  1. The couple had no children.
  2. You haven't yet entered any children.
  3. You don't know if the couple had children.

If you desire an explicit notation that a couple had no children, you should click the Add Children button and choose No Children. Doing this will put the words "No Children" on the family view in the area where children appear.

If there's a subsequent need to remove that notation, simply click the Add Children button and re-select No Children.

The "No Children" designation is included in graphic charts and in some reports (e.g., family group sheet, Register report) and in the tree view; however, it does not appear in some reports (e.g., person sheets, descendant reports).

Step-Children

A child should be entered in a family showing his biological or adoptive parents. Normally, step-children and biological children are not displayed in the same family. Step-children of one couple are really the biological children of another couple, and, in Reunion, are entered and displayed that way.

stepchildren

However, there are rare cases involving step-children where you may want the same child appearing on two families (meaning a child button will be duplicated).

For example, in a file that has families for the biological and step-parents of a child, situations arise where the child is legally considered to be part of the family of one biological parent and one step-parent — but he or she is not adopted. Here the researcher wants to document the child on...

  1. A family showing both biological parents, and...
  2. A family showing one biological parent and one step-parent — because the child has legal rights and is considered to be part of this family.
Adopted Children

Normally an adopted child is entered with the family showing the child's adoptive parents, and a child status shows that the child was adopted.

Adoption Adoptions

However, sometimes a child should appear on more than one family if the researcher wants to document the child on...

  1. A family showing the child's adoptive parents, and...
  2. A family showing the child's biological parents.
Duplicate Children

Step-children and adopted-children are situations where a child could appear on two families in one family file meaning a child is duplicated. To create a duplicate child, you'll have to add the child on both families; however, you don't want to create duplicate records for the child.

To enter a child on the first family, find the desired parents, click the Add Children button, and choose New Male Child [or Female Child]. Then enter the name and details of the child.

To add a duplicate child button...

  1. Find the desired parents for the second family.
  2. Click the Add Children button and choose Add Male/Female/Unknown Sex Child from the Sidebar.
  3. Look in the sidebar for the child. The sidebar will be "filtered" to show children of the selected sex and with the surname of the father. If the child does not appear in the sidebar (for example, if the child has a different surname), then clear the search box at the top of the sidebar to show all people. When you find the child, drag him/her from the sidebar and drop him/her into the children area in the family view.
  4. Click Duplicate in the window that appears...

Here's a shortcut for duplicating a child: hold down the Option key and drag a child to the Clipboard sidebar. Then, when you drag the child out of the Clipboard sidebar and onto another family, you'll see the window shown above and have the option to create a duplicate child. The essence of this shortcut: when you Option-drag a child to the Clipboard sidebar, he is not removed from the first family.

Duplicate Children = Multiple Sets of Parents

When a person appears as a child on more than one family, it means that multiple parents are linked to that child. You may select which set of parents appear above the person's name. These are called the "preferred parents." Learn more.

The "Duplicate" Child Status

Since instances of duplicate children should be very rare, and since the issue of linking the correct parents is important, you might want a visual clue for duplicate children. We suggest that you use a custom child status for this purpose (call it Duplicate). If you do, you'll be able to see at a glance that a child is duplicated (by the child button perimeter color, or by the explicit status if the family view is customized to include the Child Status field).

Relationships for Duplicate Children

When you identify relatives of a person, the relationships are calculated assuming that the parents shown on a person's family are the only parents.

For example, let's say that Charlie appears as a child with his biological parents' (family A), and with his aunt's family (family B).

If you select Charlie's aunt and uncle (from family B) as the preferred parents for Charlie, then finding relatives for Charlie would result in Charlie's brother on his biological parents' family appearing as a "1st cousin."

However, when finding relatives starting with another person, Reunion ignores which parents are chosen when calculating relationships. Using the example above, if you choose Charlie's aunt as the start person for finding relatives, Charlie will appear as "son" regardless of which parents you choose to display for Charlie. Reunion uses the first relationship it finds. In this example, Reunion found Charlie as a "son" before finding him as a "nephew."

Duplicate-Children in the Summary Sidebar

If a child is duplicated (appears as a child button in more than one family), the child may not appear as a step-child in the Summary sidebar. Consider this example...

Creating Duplicate Children for Descendant Charts and Reports

By definition, a descendant chart (or report) includes blood-line descendants. For example, if a descendant chart begins with your parents and you have a daughter who was previously married to a man with two children from another woman, then those two children are not your descendants and they won't appear in the descendant chart for you or your parents. If you want to include those two children in a descendant chart that begins with your parents, you could duplicate these children. I.e., the two children would appear on the family of your daughter's previous spouse and also on the family for your daughter and her current spouse.

To do this...

  1. Navigate to your daughter's family record (where she appears with her current spouse).
  2. Click the Add Children button (middle of the screen, above the children area) and choose Add Male/Female Child From the Sidebar.
  3. Drag and drop the children from the People sidebar into the children box on your daughter's family. (A message will ask if you want to duplicate the child, explained above.)