I've also always added an unknown spouse as I'm a. reasonably confident that there is/was one and b. it wouldn't seem right without one
So not a problem Randy On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Dennis M. Kowallek <kowal...@iglou.com>wrote: > On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:46:02 -0700 (PDT), Paula Ryburn > <paula.ryb...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > > >I'm with Connie on when this "feature" appeared. It's recent, and I think > it was with Legacy 7. > > It works the same way in V6. As far as I know, it's been this way for a > long time ... if not forever. And the option to DISPLAY "Unknown" or > leave blank was also there in V6. > > >I would think that if the "Unknown" spouse (either displaying the name > "Unknown" or not, depending on what I *can* set in Customize) is added by > the software for its own internal whatever, then when we come along and want > to add the real spouse, this "magically appearing" spouse should just > disappear (especially if I'm not displaying the "Unknown"). > > It does for me (in V6). In Family View, when I click on one of these > "Unknown" parent placeholders I am presented with an Add dialog which > has a checkbox which says "Add this person to the currently displayed > marriage" pre-checked. > > >Is the problem really that in addition to adding the "Unknown" spouse > placeholder, the software also links the child(ren) to this "Unknown" parent > placeholder? Is this just for some sort of internal database > requirement...... you must have two parent records if you want to link > children to one or the other of them...? > > For the techies out there, this is how it works (in V6)... > > When you link an individual to a "father" or "mother" (not "parents"), > Legacy assumes you don't know who the other parent is. It does this > because if you did know who the other parent is, you would have added > that parent first and then linked the individual to the "parents" > instead. > > Since Legacy makes this assumption it adds a new row in tblMR (Marriage > Record) with the RIN of the father (or mother) that you specified and a > RIN of 0 (zero) for the missing parent. Note ... it does not add a row > in tblIR (Individual Record) for the missing parent. A RIN of 0 in > either tblMR.IDIRHusb or tblMR.IDIRWife means that person is unknown > and, depending on your option settings, tells Legacy to display the word > "Unknown" or leave blank. > > Legacy must add a Marriage Record because the next thing it does is add > a row in tblCR (Child Record) to represent the relationship between the > child and his/her parents (one of which is unknown). The database is > designed to represent the "is a child of" relationship by linking an > Individual Record (the child) to a Marriage Record (the parents) via a > row in tblCR. > > So, in a way, it is done this way because of an internal database > requirement. But this requirement is derived from modeling the real > world. > > >and I hope Legacy will consider changing how things work to additionally > keep the user happy (not just the database). > > I see no problem with the way Legacy has designed this. But then again, > I make a habit of actually adding an unknown spouse as a new Individual > record before adding any children. And I always use Add Parents when > linking an existing individual to existing parents. > > Now that I think about it, I guess the only change I would recommend is > that Legacy actually add an Individual Record for this unknown spouse > with its own RIN (> 0) instead of using the RIN 0 placeholder hack in > the Marriage Record. But I really haven't given this a lot of thought. > > -- > > Dennis Kowallek (LTools) > http://zippersoftware.com/ltools > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ltools > > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > Archived messages: > http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ > Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > > >
