Deleting unknown or empty spouse box

capnkeith · Post by **capnkeith** » 13 Oct 2012 13:34

I recently added a child onto a single female without adding a spouse. When I then look at them on an 'All Relatives' diagram, I see the mother with the child directly underneath with a connecting link line.
In the past when adding a child with no father I have put a '?' or 'father unknown' in the spouse box so that when looking at the diagram it shows a spouse box and the child line coming from the link between the parents.
I prefer the first method of no spouse box and the child link coming direct from the mother. It also makes reports wording clearer.
I have tried to remove the unknown spouses by unlinking and deleting but when looking at the diagrams they still show the link line for the spouse and the child coming from that line.
Is it possible to make it so that the child link line comes directly from below the mother?
If it is relevant I am using version 5.

ID:6525

Post by **tatewise** » 13 Oct 2012 14:27

Not sure why your unlinking and deleting is not working.

Simply locate the male spouse Individual Record and delete it.
The easiest technique is to display the mother & spouse in the Focus Window, then select the husband box and click the Delete key, and reply Yes to the warning message.

This should work in both FH V4 and V5.

capnkeith · Post by **capnkeith** » 13 Oct 2012 15:01

Thanks for your reply

I have just tried your method but it is the same result. The link line to the spouse remains and the child link comes from that, not from the mother.

Post by **tatewise** » 13 Oct 2012 16:12

I cannot find a way to make the method fail, unless the mother also has another husband, who is not the father of the child.
In that case a blank 'proxy' father box is displayed.

What is displayed in the male spouse box that remains?

capnkeith · Post by **capnkeith** » 13 Oct 2012 17:36

Yes, that's what it is! They both have other spouses, I must have been building the diagram around the child in my first example.
It's a shame I thought I had found a way of not having blank boxes or '?' or 'unknown' etc.

Thanks anyway.

Post by **tatewise** » 13 Oct 2012 19:27

I think I have found a way to get your desired effect, but it may not 'stick'.

Firstly, delete the unknown spouse father, which at least improves the wording in Reports, as you wanted.

Then in the All tab of the Mother, select and delete the Spouse family of the other husband.

Now display the All Relatives Diagram that shows the Child linked directly to the Mother.

Finally, use Edit > Undo Delete and the other husband is added to Diagram, but the 'proxy' spouse box does not reappear.

You must save the Diagram as a Family Historian Chart to preserve the layout.

capnkeith · Post by **capnkeith** » 14 Oct 2012 10:52

Yes, that works.

I assume you meant to unlink rather than delete the other spouses family? That's what I did and it works.

Would that be something for the wish list? Perhaps it could be done so that boxes without content were not published in diagrams. Or better still children could be added to an individual without activating a spouse box in any way.

Post by **tatewise** » 14 Oct 2012 21:49

The delete Spouse family does actually delete the Family Record, but the Edit > Undo Delete reverses that anyway.
From what you say, it sounds like unlink works just as well.

You could add it to the Wish List if you wish!

In strictly GEDCOM terms, adding a Child demands an associated Family Record for the parents.
However, since there is only one Individual linked to this Family Record it should be possible to have a single parent box Diagram option.

capnkeith · Post by **capnkeith** » 15 Oct 2012 18:24

I have just put a request into the wish list, if you could just cast your eye over to see if it ok. Thanks

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