* 5th generation has married 6th generation

[Cabbagecaff]

Please help! I have researched a tree, and on one branch I have Eliza Perks b1827 and brother Thomas Perks b1817 both marry and have a child. Eliza perks child -Agnes Foster is 6th generation on my tree. Thomas Perks child-William Perks, is also 6th generation on my tree.
Then William Perks marries and has a son James Perks who is 5th Generation, and he marries the above Agnes Foster who was 6th generation on my tree, but because she marries a 5th generation, on the report she becomes 5th generation alongside her husband.
This of course throws all the generations above her out by one position.
Im having a breakdown about how to get the report to correctly depict the generations.
Currently I have James Perks as a Great Great Grandfather, which is correct -but his wife Agnes Foster is actually a Great Great Great Grandmother, and should be listed as such.
What a nightmare.
Thanks for any suggestions

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG.

Whenever members of the same family inter-marry then you will typically get this problem.

Think about it. Imagine you are a child of James Perks and Agnes Foster. Their parents are your grandparents.
The parents of those grandparents or your great-grandparents, and so on back through the generations.
It is that concept of closest relationships via marriage that FH displays by default.
The problem comes when some common shared ancestor is on both the paternal and maternal branches.
Then the number 'great' prefixes will vary depending on which branch you follow.

FH uses the Relationship(...) function to display those relationships. You will find it described in the Help pages.
It is governed by four parameters, i.e. the two Individuals, a TEXT or CODE option, and the closeness binding.
That last option defaults to 1 which requests the closest relationship binding the two Individuals including via marriage.
If set to 2 it shows the 2nd closest relationship binding, which in your case should show the alternative generations you want.

You don't say where you are looking to see the Relationship (Focus Window, Records Window, Diagram, Report).
But in most cases, it is possible to show both the 1st and 2nd closest Relationship.
We can advise how to do that if you tell us where you want it displayed.

[AdrianBruce]

... about how to get the report to correctly depict the generations. ...

As Mike says - this sort of thing happens whenever someone marries their Xth cousin Y times removed. For instance, my 5th great-grandparents, William Healow and Mary Farrington are also my 6th great-grandparents - i.e. on a different generation, because my GG-GF married his whateverth cousin once removed.

The first thing you need to understand is that there is no correct way to depict the generations - it's entirely up to you how you want to do it and probably my idea of the best way to draw it might not be yours. That's fair enough... My pedigree chart shows William & Mary in two places, linked by ribbons to highlight that duplication. (Some people hate those ribbons!) The weird part - if you think about it - is that their daughter Mary is my 4th G-GM, while their daughter Ann is my 5th G-GM - two sisters on different generations counting back from me. That's weird - but it happens, so no point worrying about it.

Because it's a diagram, I have chosen to use the expansion buttons over one pair of William & Mary to close down their ancestry on that line so that I only see one set of their ancestors. It was just an arbitrary choice which line to close down. Not sure what I do if I run off a pedigree report.

[LornaCraig]

Currently I have James Perks as a Great Great Grandfather, which is correct -but his wife Agnes Foster is actually a Great Great Great Grandmother, and should be listed as such.

Agnes Foster is your Great-Great grandmother.
She is also your 1st cousin 5 times removed. (Because she was her husband's 1st cousin once removed).
She is not your Great-Great-Great grandmother, unless there is some other additional complication that you have not mentioned.

What may be confusing you is that in the generations above Agnes there are people who have two levels of 'grandparental' realtionships to you. For example the parents of Thomas Perks and Elizabeth Perks are your GGGG grandparents (via their daughter Eliza) and your GGGGG grandparents (via their son Thomas).

Try using the How Related tool. It will give you these relationships.

[Cabbagecaff]

Thanks everyone. Its helpful to know that I'm not doing something wrong, and it's just that this family if difficult to easily depict. I think I will manually tweak the report to show the generations. I really appreciate your advice.