Parents

The Display of Parents

Parents as Buttons

Fields in Parent Buttons

Parents with Parents: A Visual Clue
Adding Parents: New or Existing?
Adding Multiple Sets of Parents
Preferred Parents
Removing Parents From a Family

Finding People With Multiple of Parents

Using Color Tags to Indicate Multiple Parents

The Display of Parents

A couple (or a single person) appears in the middle of the family view. The parents of a person appear near the top of the family view. By clicking on a parent, you go immediately to the parent's record — where the parents become the couple in the middle of the family view, their children's names will appear below them, and their respective parents will be listed above them.

Buttons

Parent buttons in the family view can be displayed in two ways...

Each family view can be configured differently (i.e., some family views can show parents stacked; some can show parents side-by-side).

To specify the layout of parent buttons...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Click Parents.
  4. Select one of the two options in the Buttons section. Learn more.

The stacked layout works better when you include places with events inside the parent buttons.

Also, the optimal layout depends partly on the dimensions of your monitor and the size you prefer to keep the Reunion app window.

Fields In Parent Buttons

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

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Click Parents.
  4. You can add, remove, or reorder fields in parent buttons. Learn more.
Parents With Parents: A Visual Clue

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

By default, parents who have parents entered in your family file appear with black text. Parents without parents entered appear with gray text.

To choose these two colors...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Family View.
  3. Click Parents.
  4. Select colors from the buttons in the Text section...

Adding Parents: New or Existing?

As you're about to add a parent to a person, you should ask yourself if the parent is already entered in the family file. If not, you add a new person.

If you're not sure, you can try to find the parent using the People sidebar. Or you can try the Add Father/Mother Using Search feature.

When you add a new parent, Reunion will automatically create a new family record for the parent and automatically put a child button on the parent's family record. The Edit Person panel will appear waiting for you to enter the parent's name, dates, and other details. Surnames of fathers will appear by default, based on the surname of the child; however, you may change it if necessary.

If a parent is already entered somewhere else in the family file, you should add the parent to a family by dragging the parent from the People sidebar and dropping him/her directly on the family where he/she belongs (in one of the parent buttons). Similarly, the Add Father/Mother Using Search feature will help you to locate and connect a parent (who's already in the family file somewhere) to the current family.

In most cases, you'll be adding new parents to your family file. However, if a parent already has been entered in the family file, you should not add a new parent 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").

Adding a Father

To add a person's father, use the Add menu button that appears above a person's name.

Adding a Mother

To add a person's mother, use the Add menu button that appears above a person's name.

Tip:

To add a new parent, click the empty spot where the parent belongs: an empty parent button.

Adding Multiple Sets of Parents

As you enter step-children and/or adopted children, there may be situations where you record multiple sets of parents for a person. The best example is when entering both adoptive and biological parents. In these situations, a child will appear on more than one family (duplicate child) and thus have more than one set of parents.

multiple parents

To add another set of parents to somebody, use the Add menu button that appears above a person's name. Choose Add New Father/Mother if the parent hasn't yet been entered in the family file. When you add a new parent, the Edit Person panel will appear waiting for you to enter the parent's name, dates, and other details.

To add another set of parents who are already entered somewhere in the family file, use the Add menu button that appears above a person's name and choose Add Father/Mother from the Sidebar. Then drag the parent from the People sidebar and drop him directly in the family view, right on top of the current parent. You'll be asked to confirm the new link.

Reunion lets you search for people with multiple parents. Learn more.

You can also use a color tag for a visual clue for people with multiple parents. Learn more.

Preferred Parents

When multiple parents are linked to a person, the Person menu button provides the means to...

  1. Navigate to any set of parents.
  2. Select which set of parents appears above a person. (These are the "preferred parents.")

If you have a situation where a child button is duplicated — i.e. a person has multiple parents and thus he appears as a child on more than one family — you may choose which set of parents appears above the person's name. These are called the preferred parents.

The choice of preferred parents is crucial for these reasons...

  1. The preferred parents appear, by default, on the family record; thus, it's easier to navigate to them, than to the non-preferred parents (which must be selected from the Person menu button, see illustration above).
  2. Reports and charts that move backward in time (like pedigree charts) will flow through the preferred parents.
  3. The preferred parents are assumed to be the only parents for purposes of identifying/calculating relatives. Learn more.

To change the preferred parents...

  1. Click the Person menu button (for the person with multiple parents).
  2. Choose Parents.
  3. Choose Edit Parents. (This menu item only appears when a person is linked to more than one set of parents.)
  4. In the window that appears, select the preferred parents by clicking in the Preferred column.

A check mark shows you which parents are designated as preferred. Thus, if you have multiple parents for a person, and you want a different set of parents to appear above a person's name, the trick is to change the preferred parents.

Removing Parents From a Family

If the wrong set of parents appears on a family (in the upper-left or upper-right corner), the easiest way to remove them is to drag them to the Clipboard sidebar. When you drag one parent to the Clipboard, the spouse comes along for the ride.

If the wrong parents appear above a person's name, then the person also appears, incorrectly, as a child on the parents' card. Dragging parents to the Clipboard simultaneously removes the child from the family where he appears as a child but doesn't belong there.

If a person has multiple sets of parents, then another option for removing parents is to choose Parents > Edit Parents from the Person menu button (the little "v" in every button), highlight the parents you wish to remove, and click the Remove Parents button.

Note: Removing parents does not delete people from a family file. It only removes links between records. The parents remain in the family file, as do each parent's ancestors and descendants.

Finding People With Multiple Sets of Parents

To search for people who have multiple (more than one) set of parents...

  1. Select Advanced Find in the navbar.

  2. In the Presets list, select With Multiple Parents.
  3. Click Find.

    The Results sidebar will appear. Clicking any name in the list will navigate to the record of a person with multiple parents. To see the multiple parents linked to a person, click the Person menu button as described above.

Using Color Tags to Indicate Multiple Parents

Using Reunion's Color Tags feature, you can automatically see a visual clue in the family file for any person with multiple sets of parents.

In the example below, the person button has a yellow color tag, which we have designated to appear for anyone with multiple parents. Click here to learn how to use color tags.