adding an illegitimater child to a family tree

[ThrelfallYorky]

Yes, know about that, when drawing it out by hand, but on Ancestry?? Can't manage it.

[lizdb]

Yes, know about that, when drawing it out by hand, but on Ancestry?? Can't manage it.

The limitations of Computers!!!

[ThrelfallYorky]

Exactly!

[JAKnighton]

It's not the fact that a couple had a child that indicates a marriage, it is the marriage event itself. So you just add the two people as parents of an individual without adding a marriage fact. There is nothing misleading about that. Perhaps people will assume they got married but you can't really control people's assumptions.

[macwil]

It's not the fact that a couple had a child that indicates a marriage, it is the marriage event itself. So you just add the two people as parents of an individual without adding a marriage fact. There is nothing misleading about that. Perhaps people will assume they got married but you can't really control people's assumptions.

My bold emphasis

That is the problem. The minute you nominate two people as parents Ancestry links them as married. In FTM you can specify each individual is single and their relationship as other but Ancestry still draws the tree with them shown as married. You do not get two lines to the child only one from a line connecting the two individuals who created that child. To anyone looking at the tree that connecting line indicates that they are married, that is one of the conventions of genealogy.

[davidft]

It's not the fact that a couple had a child that indicates a marriage, it is the marriage event itself. So you just add the two people as parents of an individual without adding a marriage fact. There is nothing misleading about that. Perhaps people will assume they got married but you can't really control people's assumptions.

My bold emphasis

That is the problem. The minute you nominate two people as parents Ancestry links them as married. In FTM you can specify each individual is single and their relationship as other but Ancestry still draws the tree with them shown as married. You do not get two lines to the child only one from a line connecting the two individuals who created that child. To anyone looking at the tree that connecting line indicates that they are married, that is one of the conventions of genealogy.

I think it is a bit more complicated than that. Yes you have to link two people together using the spouse option but then you can further define what the relationship is i.e spouse, partner, friend, single, other and unknown. However despite giving all these options it then does as you say draw the tree with one line coming down from the two parents, this surely has to be right. Where they are not being helpful is in not using different types of lines to indicate different relationships. then again does it really matter if the parents are married or not they are still just as much biological parents whether they are married or not, and then of course not all married couples are the true biological parents of their supposed offspring. Oh dear its all getting complicated ....

[jaybelnz]

You could also put a comment for each of these two on each of their profiles, noting that they were not married. That's what I've done with one of mine!

[macwil]

 However despite giving all these options it then does as you say draw the tree with one line coming down from the two parents, this surely has to be right. Where they are not being helpful is in not using different types of lines to indicate different relationships. then again does it really matter if the parents are married or not they are still just as much biological parents whether they are married or not, and then of course not all married couples are the true biological parents of their supposed offspring. Oh dear its all getting complicated ....

My bold emphasis.

But that was the whole point of the OPs post. (as I understand it)
She wanted to denote the separate parents in her tree and to be able to see them at a glance as not married, without having to go into the minutiae of facts.

Added:- MyHeritage Family Tree Builder (on PC) is better in this regard as it has a box between the couple and their children in which one can state the relationship and it is easily visible but only for the main couple, other couples are shown with a ring between them until they take centre stage. The other problem is that only 5 generations can be seen on screen at a time, which is one reason I hardly use it now. I'm not sure about the on-line version as it is sometime since I visited the site.

edit:- just visited the MH site and it shows a broken line between divorced and separated couples but doesn't distinguish between any other relationship and there is no relationship box easily visible as on the PC version.

[ThrelfallYorky]

... We need dotty lines, dashed lines, - and probably wriggly lines as well!