* Exporting to Gedsite format problem

[PeterR]

The following (edited) extract from my FH GEDCOM file illustrates that it is perfectly possible to record a Marriage event when neither date nor place of the marriage is known, and without inventing an approximate date:

Code: Select all

0 @F150@ FAM
1 MARR Y
1 HUSB @I161@
1 WIFE @I164@
0 @F151@ FAM
1 MARR
2 DATE BET JAN 1915 AND MAR 1915
2 PLAC Fulham, London
1 HUSB @I160@
1 WIFE @I553@

Is it known how Gedsite handles perfectly valid entries such as 1 MARR Y whether or not there are linked children as well as the two linked spouses?

[JohnnyCee]

Is it known how Gedsite handles perfectly valid entries such as 1 MARR Y whether or not there are linked children as well as the two linked spouses?

Peter,

GedSite handles the "1 MARR Y" case. That will create a marriage event. All subrecords are optional, though if none are supplied the output from that event will be minimal: "John Doe and Mary Smith were married."

If the MARR record has subrecords then it does not need the "Y" on the "1 MARR Y" record, and that's the case in the 2nd entry from your GEDCOM snippet.

[tatewise]

GedSite behaves entirely rationally according to the Person Entry > Family Sections > Edit Item > Spouses option.

The Family spouse name appears or not according to that option, regardless of the Marriage Event.

The blank Marriage Event simply produces a He/She married X. sentence, regardless of the Family entry.

[craigmollekin]

....and the 'proof of the pudding' is here: http://mollekin.net/swintonrecord/g3/p2015.htm#i50373 ...displayed in a way that I'm more than happy with

Took a bit of time getting there mind

Well done with Gedsite, John; keep up the good work

[tatewise]

JohnnyCee said earlier about Person Entry > Family Sections > Edit Item > Spouses > All spouses:
"It's not the default because in most cases, a couple without children has some other event that describes their relationship..."

But even if there is such an event, even a Marriage Event, the spouse is still NOT listed against Family at the top.
You have to search the narrative or bullet facts to find the spouse mentioned.

It is ONLY the existence of Children that enables the Family spouse/partner name display.

If there is no such event or status then the spouse/partner is not mentioned anywhere!

In some cases, the exact relationship has not yet been determined, only that the couple had a relationship of some sort.
It seems reasonable to NOT enter a specific Marriage event or any other event or Status until there is some evidence of the type of relationship.

It seems to me better to show all Family partners than hide some just because they had no Children.

[JohnnyCee]

Mike,

We'll have to agree to disagree. I don't think that the typical partner is hard to find in the tag list, nor is that person necessarily only mentioned once. The spouse / partner will often share census events, for example.

GedSite supports more than 2,000 options, so it's inevitable that users will disagree with some default values. I am open to reconsidering those choices, but there is also the easy answer: the customer can change the setting to suit his or her preference.

[tatewise]

John, I think the problem is worst when there are a number of partners, some with children and some without.

e.g. The Family 1, Family 2, etc, summary at the top would include unmarried liaisons with children, but exclude Married couples with a Marriage Event or other events & status who had no children.

In Craig's case it was the opposite, with a couple with no events, no status, and no children, so the partner gets no mention whatsoever.

Even when you post a cryptic clue to the GedSite setting it took me ages to find where it was hidden under the Person Entry Section. Clearly Craig had not found it, and it seems contrary to the norm in most products to show all partners by default. The user can only change the setting if they can find it.

My main concern is that the setting criterion has nothing to do with events and only to do with children, and secondly that if no events and no children then they vanish from the profile.

[tatewise]

So, illustrating my point more graphically, you get this irrational scenario with default GedSite settings :-

A chap who has a short affair that results in an illegitimate child has the woman and child listed at the top as Family.
He is married for 50 years with Engagement, Marriage, etc, facts but sadly childless, so his wife is NOT listed as Family.
However, 99% of his profile of facts will all be about the 50 years with his wife and next to nothing about the affair.

[JohnnyCee]

Mike,

I'd hardly call that "irrational". Perhaps you consider GedSite's Family Section as the key indicator of the members of the man's family, but that's not how I look at it. That would discount the meat of the entry you described which includes many entries with his wife.

Some other points:

1 - The GedSite Family Section is configurable. It may appear at the top, in the middle, or at the bottom of the entry.

2 - Each subsection (per partner) may start with the word "Family:", or with the phrase "Children with", or a custom sentence designed by the user, so the emphasis on "family" may or may not exist in the section. With some choices, the section becomes a list of children separated by the co-parents.

3 - As mentioned multiple times now, childless spouses may be included in the Family Section.

4 - You found it hard to find the "All spouses" setting, but from what I understand, you aren't really an active user. The Person Entry items are fundamental to the person page entry and any user who wants to adjust the person entry will find their way to that section. Craig's difficulty was mostly the result of posing the issue as a missing marriage record which started the discussion on the wrong track.

5 - The Family Sections in Second Site work the same way as GedSite, with the same default, and Second Site has been used by thousands of users for more than 15 years. More people use the "Spouses with children" setting than the "All spouses" setting. That doesn't mean the former is right and the latter is wrong, it means that there is not broad agreement that the default should be "All spouses".