Family Historian User Group

I may have a particular unusual set of circumstances and accept that a general purpose tool may not be able to cope. I thought, however, that I would ask the question anyway.

I have a relative, Georgina, who was illegitimate. I have never been able to trace a possible father and she was brought up by her grand parents. Her mother remained unmarried for some time. When Georgina married for the first time no father was listed on her marriage certificate. When she married for a second time her mother had married and she recorded her mother's then husband as her father on the parish marriage register.

As Georgina rightly has no father AS will not allow me to enter him as recorded as her father when I input this parish register entry as an AS fact. AS does not allow the changing of the fathers record number from not known to a number and the name entry box is greyed out even though the tick box is enabled to show the fathers details in the text window.

As I said at the start not a common problem but should AS and FH be able to cope with this particularly as I am trying to transcribe what was actually on the Parish Register into the Facts?

ID:6445

With in FH, you could simply add her as a child (using the Relationship option for Step) to include her as a step child of the Father.

Jane is correct, you could do it that way, but I don't think this is a common way to do it. It sounds like you've done the right thing - she has an unknown father and so I wouldn't record her step father as being her father at all (unless you think he actually was her father!).

In AS I would leave the father blank but before saving the record I would edit the source text at the bottom (assuming you use the Auto button) manually to record the name of the father as given in this record, to ensure that the transcription is accurate.

There will often be differences between what you want to record in your file as a fact, individual, etc. and what the source says. For example, a census might record an occupation as Ag Lab but I would record the occupation as Agricultural Labourer and then edit the source text transcription to show Ag Lab as it did on the original document. So in your example, I know that this man isn't actually her father so I wouldn't add him as a father but just record this in the source text.

By the way, if you ever did need to add a father in AS to a marriage you can do so using the 'Add Parent...' or 'Add Spouse...' links in AS.

Nick & Jane

Thanks for your replies. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something that AS could do automatically.

I had already followed your suggested route Nick.

Thanks