Marriage of first cousins

mworcs · Post by **mworcs** » 04 Oct 2011 21:25

I've discovered a marriage between first cousins. How can I show what is currently indicated in a diagram as two separate marriages, albeit with the same names, as just one marriage!!

John

ID:5501

Post by **tatewise** » 04 Oct 2011 23:19

I believe that diagrams cannot be adjusted that way.
Presumably, the spouses not only have the same names, but are also linked by coloured 'proxy' ribbons.
There is only one marriage in the database, but in general it would be almost impossible for FH to draw a diagram with the spouses only shown once.
Your family tree may be a simple one, where to human eyes it looks easy to draw one marriage, but FH does not have that insight.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 05 Oct 2011 07:15

If you don't have the ribbons, it's worth checking you don't have two records for the cousins, the quick way to check is to show the record ID in the text scheme, if you do have two records for either spouse you can then merge them.

mworcs · Post by **mworcs** » 05 Oct 2011 10:03

Many thanks for replying. I'm very new to Family Historian so the terminology and location of menu items and options isn't always obvious to me.

I know what proxy boxes are but 'coloured proxy ribbons'? And 'record ID in the text scheme' has left me scrabbling around in menus and not quite sure what I'm looking for! A breadcrumb trail would be great - sorry .[frown]

Post by **tatewise** » 05 Oct 2011 10:51

If the two marriages shown on the Diagram are in fact only one marriage in your database, then the same pair of cousins will appear twice, linked by a coloured ribbon.
The husband cousin will appear under his parents and next to his wife cousin, but with no parents shown.
This wife cousin will appear under her parents and next to her husband cousin, but with no parents shown.
To show these are the same individuals, FH links them with a coloured ribbon.

If this coloured ribbon is not shown, then may be your database actually has duplicated marriages and individuals.

To check and correct, follow these instructions, which is an alternative way of checking Record Id instead of altering Diagram Text Schemes:
Open the Individual Records Window i.e. use View > Records Window and select the Individuals tab.
Find the record for the husband cousin. There should be only one.
If there are two with the same name, then note the Record Id in the second column, which uniquely identify these records.
Repeat this for the wife cousin record(s).

Now select the Families tab and repeat the exercise for the Family Record of the marriage.
Again if two records then, note their Record Id.

If you have found duplicates, then this can be illustrated via the Focus Window.
Select one of the cousins Individual Records and click the Focus magnifying glass icon in the toolbar at the top, and note all their relations.
Repeat this for the duplicate cousin with the same name, and the relations should be different.

If you have found duplicates then they need to be merged as follows.
Use Edit > Merge/Compare Records and ensure one pair of cousins is listed in the right-hand pane.
To do this, select them in the left-hand pane and click the > Add To Selection and < Remove From Selection as necessary.
Click OK and then click Help in the Merge File window.
After reviewing the advice you should be able to merge the two cousins details into one.
Repeat this for the other pair of cousins.

There should now only be one set of cousins and marriage.

'How did this happen' I hear you ask.
Well probably, when you added the spouse/partner of one of the cousins you chose Create New Record instead of Link Existing Record.

mworcs · Post by **mworcs** » 05 Oct 2011 14:48

Very many thanks for your detailed and informative reply. I've now usefully extended - a little - my previously hazy grasp of FH4!

Your instructions worked perfectly. I don't like the coloured ribbons, but I also cannot see any other graphical way of identifying the relationship connection, so I'll live with it.

Again many thanks.

John

pricero1 · Post by **pricero1** » 06 Oct 2011 18:33

John - if you don't like the look of the ribbons, you can configure them to look like normal connecting line.

Post by **tatewise** » 07 Oct 2011 09:27

In fact you can hide the ribbon links completely, or format them in many ways as follows.
View the All Relatives Diagram as usual.
Use Diagram > Options > General tab.
Towards the bottom left-hand corner untick Check for duplicates and the coloured ribbon links vanish.
Alternatively, click the Options button and change the style of the ribbon links.
For more advice click the Help button.

Family Historian User Group