Similarly marriage isn't really related to biology. Folks get married and have children; folks have children without getting married. Folks get married, have children, sometimes by others than their lawful spouses.
Someday, a genealogy program will properly handle these relationships. There are biological parents, which are what you need when you are tracking bloodlines, inherited conditions, and so forth. There are legal relationships, which deal with who is a family, who inherits property and goods, who can act as family, and how families are created and broken and reformed. There are religious relationships, which vary by religion. A member of LDS may have slightly different interests than a Jewish researcher, or a Hindu, or what have you. A patriarchal line may have different requirements than a matriarchal line. And there are social relationships, which may envelope any of the above, and more. John and Edna Smith die, and their son William is taken in by the Brown family...but no legal papers ever formalized the arrangement. There's no blood connection, there's no legal connection - and yet they might provide for him in their will, he might give his children a "Brown" name, either first, middle, or maybe even last. Those who chose "marriage" as the basic unit for genealogy miss the point. If you're tracking bloodlines, you are tracking successful matings; nothing more, nothing less. If you're looking at families...who inherits, what titles come down, etc...you may need to deal with the legal situations. An adopted son or daughter may or may not inherit a title, for example, depending on the laws of the time and place. There are a number of pretty good programs out there. But not a one handles all of these situations. (And yet that's what a relational database is supposed to be GOOD at. <sigh>) Stan Young -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Steve Hayes Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 01:42 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Recording an Event in Lieu of Marriage On 20 Apr 2006 at 20:44, Ed Norris wrote: > In Massachusetts, marriage between same sex couples is legal and thus good > genealogy. Bad biology. Of course when cloning *really* gets going, that may change, but I doubt that it will make for better genealogy. I'd records such an event as a "Domestic Partnership" under events. -- Steve Hayes E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm Phone: 083-342-3563 or 012-333-6727 Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.4.4/319 - Release Date: 19-Apr-06 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.4.4/320 - Release Date: 20-Apr-06 Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
