* showing spouses without children in a published report

[SantaT]

I noticed when I did a report recently that wives who did not have children with a particular husband were omitted from the report. Example: James had 4 wives: Margaret, Jane, Elizabeth and Ann. I don't know whether Jane or Elizabeth is the mother of his son Charles, because their death dates and his birth date are unclear. There are no other children attributable to one or the other. If I assign him to either Jane or Elizabeth, the other drops out of the published report. Ann drops out because that marriage was well after James' last child was born. Optimally, I'd like to assign Charles to "unknown spouse" but list all 4 known spouses. And then in a note discuss that he is assigned to unknown spouse because whether Jane or Elizabeth is his mother is, at this point, unknowable.

In short, how can I make sure that a spouse is listed, even if that marriage did not have issue?

[Jane]

Exactly which report are you running and what options have you selected. I have a lady with 2 husbands and 2 children from other relationships and they all show correctly. However if you are using a Descendent report and the person with a selection of children is a spouse not a descendant this may be why you are not seeing all of them.

[SantaT]

(Version 6.2) Yes, it is a narrative, descendant report. The options I am using are 5 generations and all notes. So in a descendant report, if a marriage doesn't result in (documented) children, the spouse is not given? I guess that's logical, even though I would imagine that the circumstance where which spouse is the mother of a child is ambiguous, is not uncommon. Is there an option to add spouses without descendants?

[tatewise]

I think if you examine the narrative closely, all the spouses/partners will be mentioned, albeit briefly.
It may just say: He married Jane SMITH, or He had a liaison with Jane SMITH.

If there are no Facts or Relatives recorded against the spouse/partner, then they won't get a separate paragraph to themselves.
If there are no Facts or Relatives, what could that paragraph say that has not already been said?

Perhaps that is what you mean; that some spouses/partners do not get their own paragraph.

BUT they do get mentioned within the husbands paragraph.

[SantaT]

Thank you all. I see it now.

[tatewise]

Maybe a solution to your original dilemma of how to record Charles' mother as uncertain, is to record him against BOTH Jane and Elizabeth, with appropriate Notes?

[SantaT]

That does sound like a better solution than either a) entering a fifth spouse "unknown" or b) assigning Charles to one or the other and trusting readers to read the notes. Thanks.