Complex Family Relationships

I had a phone call from a friend yesterday. "I am helping someone whose mother had children with two different men before marrying a third and having children with him. He also had children from a previous marriage, and adopted her children. How can I help her put all of this in Family Tree?"

I explained that Family Tree can easily record all of these relationships. If she goes to the mother's record she can Add Spouse as often as necessary. Likewise for her father. And when the children are added, remember that children can be shown with multiple sets of parents. You can edit the Parent-Child Relationship to specify the type of relationship: Adoptive, Biological. Foster, Guardianship, Step

Click the Edit icon (pencil) on the child's relationship line and select the parent and choose the relationship type from the drop-down list.

In this member's situation, she can list her mother's three biological families, add her mother's husband's prior children as her mother's step children. and that her mother's prior children are her husband's adopted children, etc.  

(See this short video.)
Add Relationship Type in Family Search | LDS Family History Tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vrJNrg8YvQ

The easy way to add the children to another set of parents is to go to the Person page of the shared parent and copy and paste the IDs of the children from one spouse's family into the other spouse's family.

Note that prior to the 1900s, adoptions were often informal, without any legal paperwork. But the relationships were still adoptions.

I was glad to find this helpful video. Give it a "Like" if it is helpful to you.

Making a difference?

We sometimes wonder if our efforts make a difference. Some of us are in our most productive (and demanding) years, when we may struggle to keep up with it all.

Others of us find ourselves unwillingly idle. We may be old and we may even have thoughts such as "Why am I still alive? What good can I do any more?"  

As someone who is retired but not able to serve a mission, I try to contribute to FamilySearch.

Out of curiosity, I clicked SHOW YOUR STATS on Get involved > Opportunities. I was amazed at what it displayed. Here is part of it. So by doing a little research and verifying place names in recent months, I have helped members take deceased relatives to the temple yesterday? Wow! 

I encourage you to continue your own efforts, whatever they may be. They DO make a difference. 

Thank you for helping! - Bill Buchanan, Stake Consultant

Recovering Access to a FamilySearch Account

 

Recovering Access to a FamilySearch Account
As consultants, a frequent task is helping someone who cannot get into their FamilySearch account.
This usually means that they have forgotten their username or password or both.
The solution begins by clicking Sign In, then Forgot username or password, then select Email or Mobile Number and click OK and follow the steps. Then ask them to write their username and password and put it in their wallet.

See: How Do I Recover My FamilySearch Username and Password (about 2 minutes long)
https://youtu.be/4KHxXU4DEWk

What if both the email and mobile number have been changed?
Remember that we can call the toll-free FamilySearch Support number for help.
1-866-406-1830

(As a last resort, I might suggest trying the Sign Up option, in the hope that the system will find an existing account based on the same name and address. But I would try the other options first.)

What are the rules for usernames and passwords?
https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/what-are-the-rules-for-my-username-and-password