Family Historian User Group

I have just noticed something strange (or more probably I have done something silly!!!), I have my charts set up to show BMD icons under the boxes in the charts, but only when I have the appropriate certificate. I have just noticed that my great uncle who married twice doesn't have the 'M' icon under his name, I don't have a certificate for his first marriage so I don't expect him or his wife to have an icon for that marriage, but I do have the certificate for his second marriage, she does have the 'M' under her name but he doesn't. Have I managed to do something silly or is this the way it should work?

Margaret.

Margaret, this is related to the dilemma of where to display Marriage Dates especially for multiple spouses.
The default convention is to only show each Marriage Date in the spouse boxes.
The alternative requires multiple Marriage Dates in the box of the person who has multiple spouses, and the viewer must work out which Marriage Date goes with which spouse.

The same applies to your M icons and depends on what you want to achieve.
For example, if a person has multiple Marriages and each has a Certificate do you want multiple M icons?

The solution impacts the Data References you use.
Each spouse/partnership involves a different instance number for the Family/Spouse link.
e.g.
%INDI.FAMS[1].MARR% is 1st marriage
%INDI.FAMS[2].MARR% is 2nd marriage
and so on...

Thank you Mike, I don't have any multiple marriages so far where I have certificates for either or both and normally the 'M' appears under both boxes, just as long as that is the way it is meant to work and I haven't done anything that I shouldn't!!!

Thank you.

Margaret.

It would be easier to answer if you could clarify your criteria for displaying the M icon.
That is easiest for a single partnership because either a Marriage Certificate exists or it doesn't.
But is trickier for multiple partnerships where there may be none or multiple Marriage Certificates, and even if only one Marriage Certificate that may belong to the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd partnership.

Think about what you would want to be displayed for your great uncle in the following cases:

• No Marriage Certificates at all
• One Marriage Certificate for just his 1st marriage
• One Marriage Certificate for just his 2nd marriage
• Two Marriage Certificates, one for each of his 1st and 2nd marriages

If you could post your Conditional Expression for displaying the M icon I can answer the question of whether "that is the way it is meant to work and I haven't done anything that I shouldn't"?

Thank you Mike, I'll just leave it as it is, I doubt if it'll crop up again as I haven't found very many second marriages and certainly none that I'll have a certificate for, it just puzzled me that is all.

Thanks

Margaret.