How Do You Handle Concubines

Question

In the middle ages, it wasn't uncommon to have multiple concubines and mistresses,  (BTW, what is the difference?)  A man might have multiple kids by multiple unknown concubines.  If you can't identify which kid came from  which mother, do you set them all as if they came from one concubine; do you set a different concubine for each kid?  One profile for an early monarch as concubines 1 through 7 or 8, all unnamed, some with the same kids. and some with no kids.

Answer 1

I think Vic has raised an important point -

eg Henry 1 - Normandie-45 had vast amounts of children with his thankfully well documented concubines. However this is not so for all such situations, where it is probably impossible currently to make the connection - in those circs I favour seperating them out and making them children of 'unamed mother' so the uncertainty is recorded - who knows what mtDNA may reveal in the future!

Answer 2

I would just leave the mother blank for the children. It's not really worth creating a bunch of profiles for unknown concubines, since they wouldn't really contain any information. Placeholder profiles (ie. profiles that don't contain any real data, just Unknown or something like that) are discouraged on WikiTree, since they take up valuable resources with little benefit.

Comments

I probably got wrong end of stick - but do have a vested interest as I have some significant ancestors who have mothers who were not married to their fathers, makes me a bit protective of the little dears :)

But totally accept premise of empty data not to wastefully use precious space

W

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Oh I have nothing against ancestors who weren't married to their spouses! As long as there's information about them, they should obviously be included. But if the information is just "Unknown Concubine" then it's not really worth it.