Could we have a check box for no spouse

+10 votes
209 views
On the edit page, we have a checkbox for No children.  Could we please have one there for No spouse as well?  Now you actually have to do the opposite by going to Add spouse and scroll down to choose no spouse which is counterintuitive.
in WikiTree Tech by Cindy Cooper G2G6 Pilot (328k points)
retagged by Ellen Smith
You can write none in the space for spouse's name on the information page if you are doing RootsSearch.  That worked for me in that situation.

2 Answers

+6 votes
 
Best answer

Scroll down to the Related Questions section, and you will see that this request has come up year after year.

This was the answer from Chris Whitten in 2015:
"We store marriages in a slightly different way than we store other personal information, because marriages involve two people. This means it's more efficient to have them marked through a different process."

by Ros Haywood G2G Astronaut (1.9m points)
selected by Robin Lee
It probably comes up year after year (the last one I saw was 2016) because it's so difficult to find as it is.  Who thinks I should go to Add a spouse to say there is no spouse?  Could there be messaging somewhere to help people with this?  Maybe in the line that says Spouses:  [add]    perhaps it could say [add/mark none]

Thank you for the background info though.

Maybe in the line that says Spouses:  [add]    perhaps it could say [add/mark none]

Someone suggested something like this a week or two ago, and I think it's a good compromise for now. Although a no spouse/no more spouses check box is on the top of my wishlist. 

But [add spouse] takes you to a different page, so if "mark none" were on that same link, it also would take you to another page, which is what is not wanted. 

What would be better is a radio button like the one for No children.  All on the one page.  No extra clicks. smiley

It could be a seperate link that only shows if the person has no spouse yet.
Melanie, that was my original request, but was told by Ros (above) that it isn't possible because of the relationships.  But Jamie, if you can do that, it would be great and it would be only needed if there was no spouse yet, so that would work.  Melanie, if you click add spouse from the edit page, that is the page where you say has no spouse - go all the way to the bottom to find it.  That you have to click add spouse to say no spouse is confounding.  So the best would be the check box right on the edit page, second best would be some additional wording.  Thanks for considering it, Jamie.  The reason I ask is that so many Acadians died young during the deportation of the 1750's and they weren't married or ever will be married and so the problem is rather frequent.

 That you have to click add spouse to say no spouse is confounding.

I do this every time I add a baby, or someone else who Died Young.  It is an extra step I do because I need to, but wish I didn't have to.  (I did three babies in about an hour the other day .. and I lost count of how many the last couple of weeks or so.  All those extra clicks!)

+3 votes
Agree!!  Please add a checkbox for No Spouse, just like you have for No children.
by Charles Platt G2G5 (5.0k points)

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