If I have an illegitimate child, I used to just leave the space blank but then I started using 5 underscores for unknown names eg _____ _____ which means I don’t know either the forename or the surname of a person. Similar with a spouse where I know one part of the name but not the other eg. _____ Barker or Susan _____
I’m fixing these as I go through my tree sorting all sorts of things. I chose to use the underscores as I read in a few groups that they are the preferred method.
In FTM that makes the entries with underscores as surnames appear first in the persons list so they are easy to spot. You would still have to check whether each was for an unknown spouse or unknown father though. Should it be a father then you can then add a fact named Illegitimate to the child.
If you have used Unknown Unknown for forename and surname the same idea would work but your list of people to investigate would be near the end of your person list rather than at the beginning.
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searching for illegitimate children in my tree
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sorry, I should have posted it elsewhere, you need to make 10 posts and be here for 10 days I think. Image wasn't that exciting, just showed, the person with father on same line and mother on next. with biological next to it. I am not on latest FTM. I do also use RootsMagic as I have had that for a few years, and have been known to import GEDCOM into that to produce a report. I find their reporting far more flexible with ease.
The parentage report would work for you, if you have father 'unknown', as well as the filtered lists (from Kats post in the link). Important thing is to be consistent in your approach and you should be able to find them.
as I am not on 2019 the filtered lists are not exportable, so no good for me
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Thanks for your thoughts on the matter.
cbcarolyn raised a good point. I'd forgotten that when I find a mother who has more than one illegitimate child I create a person called Father UNKNOWN to group them under. Those people are easy to find in Ancestry.
For some reason I can't see images posted on this forum. All I get is "Sorry, you are not authorized to view this page".
Thanks for your help
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I realised that it could be a sizeable task.
But any tree is just a database of information, and if this information has not been "marked" then no software can produce a report. I was just suggesting ways to solve it going forward.
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Originally posted by cbcarolyn View Post
There was a thread on reports and facts recently - you could use the same method.
https://www.familytreeforum.com/foru...and-informants
Custom reports lets you choose fact fields
However, as you say, Carolyn, you can use a parental report and transfer it to a database . The problem with that is, especially if you have a very large tree, you will have hundreds of married ins, with or without surnames that you would need to sort through. On my tree that would be an enormous task.
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there is a parentage report.
You could export the entire file to a spreadsheet, right click to CSV if on an older version
parents.JPG
report would look like this for everyone, if no father it will be blank - clearly this doesn't mean illegitimate, but could be a starting point. You can create your own fact, once identified.
There was a thread on reports and facts recently - you could use the same method.
https://www.familytreeforum.com/foru...and-informants
Custom reports lets you choose fact fields
I did wonder if the best way could be for the biological parent to be named 'Unknown', and step/adopted etc to be completed as needed? Not thought about it.
Wonder what anyone else does?
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Welcome to the forum witchetty
I'm afraid the simple answer to that is no.
If you have FTM 2019 it might be worth going to their LIVE chat or email them re the possibility of adding this particular search when they update their programme. They are very open to new ideas.
https://www.mackiev.com/techsupport/...gCw6QaxpCl3jgk
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searching for illegitimate children in my tree
Generally when I find an illegitimate child I have made some kind of not to that effect, but can't guarantee that I always have, and I would have used different terms in different places.
Obviously step 1 is to search for terms such as baseborn (or base born), illegitimate, and so on.
However, is there a way to use FTM to search the tree for children with no fathers?
Thanks.Tags: None
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