How to Accurately Annotate Divorces in Family Trees with Children

When creating a family tree, especially when parents are divorced and have children, accurately annotating the marriage and divorce details is crucial. This guide will help you understand how to properly include these details in your genealogy software to maintain the integrity of your family tree.

Key Steps in Annotating Divorces

In most genealogy software, there are specific fields for detailed information about marriages and divorces. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to annotate a divorce with children:

1. Provide the Marriage Date and Place

Always start by indicating the date and place where the parents were married. This provides a clear and accurate historical context for the family tree. For example, if Mr. A. Jones and Ms. B. Smith were married on July 15, 2010, in Chicago, record this information.

2. Indicate the Status of the Marriage

Given the complexity of family dynamics, it's important to indicate the status of the marriage if it ended in a divorce. If you know the date and place of the divorce, include these as well. For Mr. A. Jones and Ms. B. Smith, if they divorced on March 3, 2015, in Toronto, make sure to note this detail.

3. List the Parents of Any Individual

When you have a child like C. Smith-Jones, it's essential to list their parents. In this case, C. Smith-Jones would be listed as the child of A. Jones and B. Smith, even before their marriage ended. This is important because C. Smith-Jones was a result of their union and retains familial ties.

Updating the Family Tree After Divorce

When parents divorce, you may need to make subsequent updates to the family tree. Here's how to handle these situations:

1. Linking New Marriages

After the divorce, if A. Jones marries D. Williams and B. Smith marries E. Brown, ensure you link these new marriages within the genealogy software. This will maintain the continuity of the family tree and show the new partners as step-parents to C. Smith-Jones. The new marriages will appear as separate lines in your family tree, clearly indicating the change in family dynamics.

It's important to note that these new relationships will be evident from the linked information and you don't need to explicitly mention that C. Smith-Jones now has new step-parents. The software will handle this automatically.

2. Handling Adoption Scenarios

In some cases, C. Smith-Jones may be adopted by one of the new step-parents. In such instances, you can make this adoption link in the genealogy software. If C. Smith-Jones is adopted by D. Williams in San Francisco on June 20, 2020, you can record this information. C. Smith-Jones would then have two sets of parents: biological parents (A. Jones and B. Smith) and adoptive parents (D. Williams).

Visual Representation of Divorces in Family Trees

While genealogy software provides structured ways to include detailed information, it's also important to visually represent divorces when drawing a family tree diagram. This can be done by indicating the divorce on the line connecting the marriage with a symbol or a line that breaks off. However, it is not always done, and visual complexity can sometimes make it harder to understand the nuances of the family dynamics.

Example: If Mr. A. Jones and Ms. B. Smith were married, divorce, and remarried, you could draw it as follows:

Marriage: A. Jones and B. Smith on the same line Break off the line with a symbol indicating the divorce in 2015 Remarriage: A. Jones and D. Williams Another line for B. Smith and E. Brown

Conclusion

Accurate and detailed annotation of divorces in family trees is essential for maintaining the integrity of family history. By using genealogy software features and visual representation, you can ensure that your family tree is a comprehensive and accurate record of family relationships, even in the complex scenario of divorce and remarriage.