Family Tree Maker 2005 expert needed!

[Abiam2]

Hi,
I have been using FTM for a couple of years with no problem.  But now I have one mother with 3 illegitimate children.  I have the name of the father of the first one.  The other 2 have unknown fathers.

My problem is that the 2 with unknown fathers keep coming up with the father of the first.  I have read the instructions on how to detach them from the father but cannot make it work.  It says to place the cursor over the child yo want to detach (in family view) and then go to people and fix relationship but it detaches the child from both parents.  I only want to detach the father.  Does anyone know how to do this?

Thank you, Abiam

[jksdelver]

I think the best way to do it is to delete the children and start again When you attach a spouse it asks you if you want to attach the children to the new couple say no. So you could add the children to the mother then attach a new spouse and say no to the children. I am sure that this doesn't sound right but just tried it on mine and it worked.

[Abiam2]

Thank you, I shall try it that way - will let you know 
Abiam

[Abiam2]

  It won't work for me 


Any other suggestions?  I either get the mother married with his 3 children or not married with 3 children.  I don't seem able to put the first child as having a father!  Think I'll have a large coffee and try again later!

[jksdelver]

Sorry about that. Perhaps someone else will come up with a solution

[meles]

I would delete the children (again!  and create three spouses for the mother. Call two of them "Unknown" or whatever convention you use. Then attach one child to one unknown, one to the next, and the third the the named father.

Good luck!

meles

[mariac]

Hi Abiam
  You could try this

Detach the children who are fatherless so now you only have Mum Dad and 1 child on the family page

Go to attach spouse and click create a new spouse... click yes and it will ask if you want to attach the child to the new spouse ...
answer no. You will come up with a new family page ..
Dont put the name of any spouse in here just the names of the children.
It will show up as a spouseless relationship

Hope this works
Mariac

[Fdgl65]

I've had trouble with this too as quite a few of my relations were unmarried mothers who married later on. I went to the relationship details of the child concerned and changed the relationship with the new father to "step father" and it worked. This is in the 2009 version of the program so I don't know if it's the same in your version.

[downside]

I use FTM-2005 and have a woman that:

Married to husband_1 and had 4 children - then first husband died.
Spouseless relationship_1 - had 1 child
Spouseless relationship_2 - had 1 child
Married to husband_2 and had 4 children

1) The first relationship is straight-forward.
2) You set up a relationship where the partner is unknown (a spouseless relationship).  The important thing is to SET A MARRIAGE DATE even though there isn't one - otherwise the sort order will not work properly.  The marriage date can be 9 months from the childs baptism date or birth date.
3) Repeat step 2.
4) Repeat step 1.

If you know the name of the father but they did not marry, then put the fathers name in the husband field but change the marriage status to 'none' or 'single'.  Make sure you have a marriage date though, even though they didn't marry.