Accidentally checked no spouse, now can't undo that

+10 votes
362 views

Adding a spouse appears to be the only way to undo the designation of no spouse, which I accidentally clicked.  

Jack Dismukes is known to have had a spouse.  I have a few sources that name her, but her name has some variation in them.  Until I can be sure about her LNAB, I am not ready to add her profile but it would be nice to be able to remove the "no spouse" designation that is now there.

(edited to add tag for jamie)

in WikiTree Tech by Gaile Connolly G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
retagged by Jamie Nelson
Yes, it would be nice to be able to undo those accidental clicks.
Us cuzzins sure tend to think the same, Melanie - guess it runs in the family.
Yeah, and it looks like the flag remains even if you add a spouse. Definitely a bug.

2 Answers

+4 votes
Just go to the edit profile and on the right select add spouce. You can use unknown for the last name until you can get the correct last name at birth for the spouse.
by Kevin Conroy G2G6 Pilot (245k points)
Kevin, thank you for trying to help, but the last thing I want to do is create an Unknown when I expect to know the correct name soon enough.  Also, I cannot add this person yet because I do not yet have either a birth or death date.

It should be possible to remove the "no spouse" designation.  Unless there is some way of doing that, which I don't know about, this is a needed system improvement.
I added an existing WikiTree profile as spouse and then removed the "unknown wife".

It seems issue is fixed now.

Wow, Rubén, what a brilliant idea!!!  THANX a million!!!!

EDITED - Oops, he's now back to "unmarried" - that shows on the edit page and the "add spouse" link doesn't show on the private view page and the "[spouse(s) unknown]" doesn't show on the public view page.

You are welcome, Gaile.

Happy to have been of help. smiley

EDITED - Oops, he's now back to "unmarried" - that shows on the edit page and the "add spouse" link doesn't show on the private view page and the "[spouse(s) unknown]" doesn't show on the public view page.

The add spouse link is still there in edit mode.

Edited to add quote, so it is clear to whom I was replying.

Yes, Melanie, so it is possible to add a spouse.  The problem is that the edit page also shows "unmarried" there, plus the view pages - both public and private - indicate that he was never married.  It looks like adding a spouse, then removing her, simply restored the never married designation that I had accidentally clicked.  In fact, it's truly a bug now because this means that even adding a spouse (which is possible to do) does not remove the "no spouse" designation!!!

Gaile. After making several different tests, I finally found a way to desappear the "unmarried" designation in the profile.

It is a tricky way, but it works.

1.- Create a duplicate profile with a different LNAB (your profile is Dismukes-264, so may be "Jack Dismuke").

2.- Merge Dismukes-264 into Dismuke-xxx (the duplicate profile in step 1. Keep all the information on Dismukes-264 in the "new" final profile Dismuke-xxx)

3.- "Fix" the LNAB in Dismuke-xxx to the correct LNAB: Dismukes.


Jack will have a new ID, Dismukes-yyy

... with no "unmarried" designation!

Oh my, Rubén, that seems much too convoluted, plus it would include violating the honor code by deliberately creating a duplicate, then doing 2 separate merges to get back to where we need to be.  I thought our goal here is to minimize merges whenever possible because the redirects they create put so much overhead on the system.

Besides, as soon as a profile for his wife Bessie is added, the "indelible" unmarried designation ... will vanish !!
Right, when I add Bessie or Betsy Edmonson or Crawford or maybe something else, that will make it ok ... except that the profile will probably still say "unmarried" on the edit page.

The real problem I see is that this is something that really should be fixed in the software - what if someone doesn't already know about an existing spouse and can't undo that no spouse state?
Even if you do add a wife, the "Unmarried" status is still there, although it does not show up in many places. It does show up when the person is in the fifth generation of a descendant view.

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/913013/unmarried-flag-remains-after-marriage-added
https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/831059/weird-glitch-regarding-marital-status

If this status field absolutely has to be a radio button, there should be a way to empty it when it has been clicked by mistake.
It isn't a radio button, but it's obviously an "unmarried" flag in the database, possibly in the person table, which is set when you click the "X has no spouse" button in the "Add spouse" screen.

The problem is that there's no way to unset the flag from a user perspective.

Edit: Logically, the button text should change from "X has no spouse" to "X may have a spouse" in the "Add spouse" screen when the "unmarried" flag is set, and have the action to unset the flag.

Edited again: Submitted as an answer in https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1156645/question-week-whats-your-wishlist-2021-wikitree-improvements
That is true Leif. It isn't represented anywhere in the interface as a radio button. It just works like one ;-)

The big black (or dark green) "X has no spouse" button is actually even worse, sitting where it is. It has happened to me once or twice (long ago now) that I have accidentaly clicked that trap of a button after filling in all the data for a spouse - because of being used to the ADD button being at the bottom.

It's one of the WikiTree things one learns to be extra wary about. BE afraid to make mistakes there.

It would be very nice if there was a toggle for the married-status somewhere.
Eva, I agree that it's poor UI design with that big button and no warning that clicking it will have irreversible consequenses.

Further, it makes no sense that you can go ahead and add a spouse to someone who is marked as Unmarried. There simply shouldn't be an "Add spouse" option as long as the Unmarried status is set. It's also clear from the above discussion that actually adding a spouse doesn't unset the flag. This must be considered as a logical inconsistency in the database.
+9 votes

To back up Melanie and Gaile's comments ...

Inability to uncheck radio buttons has been discussed before, for example here with regard to middle name status.

I have become extremely reluctant to check any status button (except "exact/certain" when I'm absolutely sure), because l know I won't be able to remove it if it turns out to be misguided but no other option is better.

The present "no spouse" case strongly reinforces that.

Despite arguments to the contrary, in my opinion it would be much better if once any radio button was selected, you could just turn it off by clicking it again.

by Jim Richardson G2G6 Pilot (995k points)
Totally agree.  I, too, have started leaving all buttons unchecked in the same way and for the same reason.

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