How do i deal with a non-marriage relation (formal and informal)

+5 votes
329 views
One of my nephews had 3 female relations as follows, spaced in time.1x marriage/divorce, 1x official registered relation and 1x long lasting relation (living together. How do i deal with that in WT? There are more gender related relations.

Thank you
in WikiTree Tech by Peter van der Burg G2G6 Mach 1 (15.6k points)

For the long-lasting relationship: even if people never formally married, they can be recorded as spouses on WikiTree. For the marriage date, a known or estimated date for the start of the relationship can be used if available, or an explanation can be given in the biography. See this authoritative answer from Jamie Nelson on 9 December 2021:

If the people considered themselves married, then they can be attached as spouses in WikiTree even if they weren't officially married. Just explain the lack of a date in the biography.

Similarly Jamie wrote on 24 September 2022:

If they considered themselves as spouses, you can still add them as married even if there wasn't a formal ceremony. Just make sure to explain things in the biography.

Jim,

Thank you. This is a way to work around the issue which makes me feel uncomfortable. I still see Wikitree is a professional system planned to be in operation when we are long gone. To register a relation at one end as 'marriage/spouse/husband' and at the other end explain the true situation makes me feel uncomfortable. A marriage (including same sex marriges)  always generates an official record (marrige certicicate) which can be referred to under 'Sources'. Relevant relationship without such a certificate should be properly recorded as such.
Common-law marriage has legal standing in many jurisdictions. More important still is how the people themselves felt about the relationship. At many times and places in history, same-sex and/or interracial marriages were legally banned, and there were other cases where people could not marry because of religious prejudice or individual vindictiveness. This should not prevent us from recognising these partnerships on WikiTree.
So we agree on the principle but not how it is currently implemented in WT.

Another issue in this area is the 'sex' field: male or female.

Under dutch law we distinguish M, F and X (for transgender).
Doesn't X indicate nonbinary rather than transgender?

WikiTree allows blank in the "sex at birth" field, and permits an "other/do not display" status for it.
Sort of. Gender neutral is the dutch phrase

1 Answer

+3 votes
You should look at these help pages

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Multiple_Marriages
by Kevin Conroy G2G6 Pilot (313k points)
Hi Kevin,

The help page only describes 'normal' marriages. Of course you can add them. I have some 'not normal' relations in my tree and i feel i should document them correctly.-

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