how to add a child born out of wedlock

Question

Hi,

I have a child born out of wedlock and both of her parents are known but they never married.  The father was 64 when the child was born and the mother who was his housekeeper was about 41.  The couple remained living in the same household for at least 11 years so it could be considered a common law marriage, but again how do you enter that information when this occurred in 1859 - 1871 in Pennsylvania.  Could the housekeeper be considered a common law wife and at the time of the birth they would not have been living together long enough for the common law marriage to be in effect.  I currently have the child with both parents attached to her but the parents are not married and don't show up on either of their profiles.  But upon reading various comments I understand that this will trigger an error.  How do I prevent another person from coming in and changing the marital status of the two parents in one of the let's fix all the errors in our tree event?

Sincerely,

Diana Sutor

Answer 1

Connect the child to the mother and to the father, but don't connect the parents as spouses.  I have no idea whether Pennsylvania recognized common-law marriages in the late 19th century.  If they did, what date would you enter for the marriage?  The nuances need explaining in the biographies.

Answer 2

How do I prevent another person from coming in and changing the marital status of the two parents in one of the let's fix all the errors in our tree event?

You can mark the error as false and then other people won't try to fix it.