Would you like to see profiles indicate half-siblings?

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

As you know, we list siblings on profile pages.

It would be pretty easy to indicate whether they are full siblings or half siblings, i.e. whether they share both parents or just one.

For example, we could say: Brother of Joe Schmoe, Moe Schmoe [half], Jill (Schmoe) Schmill [half].

If you mouse-over the "half" it could indicate whether they have a different mother or father.

This would be privacy-controlled. Siblings aren't shown at all on the public view if the person's tree, and their sibling's tree, isn't public.

We could do this on profile pages, or just edit pages.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Chris

Comments

Yes please

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Yes, you have my vote

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This is now live. For example: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Baillon-1

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I would vote yes but didn't see this question until just a few minutes ago.  I did, however, just check on my mom's half brother -- and I see it "half".  Yay! I love it.  Thank you!

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Yes!! Do it, please. It's so common for there to be half-sibs. We need a way to include them.

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I find it an interesting feature, but only that. It does not add anything. If there is a wrong parent connection somewhere (because of say generational conflation and other factors mentioned in some answers and comments in this feed) it does the neutral thing - half-siblings show up half even though they are not even real siblings to begin with. Perhaps when later in WikiTree development more profiles get Project Profile Protection and validated, that it would add more of a validating value.

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It's really helpful and about the mouseover...it reminds me of something, we were discussing a while ago how convenient it would be (working on  families with a lot of duplicates) if looking at a family with a lot of (perhaps) duplicated children the mouseover would not only show the date or year of Birth but the date /year of death of the children as well, to prevent having to click and view them all (so to see if a child died young using the mouseover).

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6 children Here, 3 each from different Mother's, ironically it's me and a half sibling that are really into geneology, so we wouldn't mind, for the sake of identification. I think this would work as a side tag, perhaps, I realize the math, for the relationship finder, Since each profile is unique...Ie..Half siblings listing different parents, the same one parent...I don't think it would upset the algorythim, but, I think I have seen this....

Answer 1

I'm a total newbie here....but as a researcher I can't help but think that data are data - it could be a useful distinction.

Answer 2

Yes, please.

Comments

Yes,  please

Answer 3

What is this solution intending to resolve?

I have often thought that seeing the childen in context of their parents would be beneficial.  I can click through to family group sheets but I wanted it on the profile page (ala Ancestry and Family Search)

Or I can switch between spouses to see which children carry over but that is a bit cumbersome. And if that other spouse had remarried as well and had other children then it gets confusing.  

So I have wanted to see the childen in context of their parents.

What happens if a woman marries the brother of her first spouse? Will we be able to distingish fathers?

We see children often assigned to the wrong parent, usually the first born of the second family is included with the first family.  Or we see all the children of the first family assigned to the second family because the first mother died and the second mother raised them.  

A careful look at birthdates against the marriage date helps reveal this.  

(Hm..does the error report check for this? I know it checks birth of child after death of parent. )

So we still need to hover to see the relationships and that sounds useful if perhaps not a complete solution.  

But I'd give it a go.

Answer 4

Another Yes, it could prove to be very useful

Answer 5

Yes please.

I forget sometimes looking at profiles if someone's sibling is their full sibling or not, and it would save me having to pop open the profile to see if they're full siblings or not.

Answer 6

That's a very great idea. Please do !

If it weren't too complex, could siblings be listed as follows?

(Instead of adding the [half] field)

Brother/Sister of Name full sibling 1, Name full sibling 2, ... and Name full sibling n.

(If there were any) Father's only brother/sister of Name(s).

(If there were any) Mother's only brother/sister of Name(s).

I think it'd make it more apprehensible and reader-friendly.

Comments

Hi Ruben. I agree something like that would be useful, but unfortunately it wouldn't be easy.

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Chris, how about a compromise? Would it be possible to list them as:

• Full sibling of: ...
• Half sibling of: ...

Granted, this wouldn't show why they were half- instead of whole-, but I would still find it very useful as a quick look at the family structure, and the more in-depth is still available on the Family Group Sheet...

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I write a lot of this info in the biography, but if the computer can handle it, it might save me some typing.:)

Answer 7

This addition would be beneficial!

Answer 8

I would like to see that information in the biography where addition details can be given, but I have not seen many profiles that have done so.  I have been seeing profiles with lots of citations and no biography at all. Are they relying on the data fields to tell the story or just haven’t gotten around to the biography yet?

Comments

Sometimes it is both James. I will admit that I have a lot of profiles that I manage that have no actual biography written yet, a fact that I am working on fixing, and even those that do most have very sparse biography's but my first priority is to find sources that will help with writing a biography later, either by me or someone else.

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That sounds much like what I am doing too.  One of the contributors I admire had said that when they edit an import they delete the sibling data (if un-sourced, I think). That puzzles me.

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I have just spent the month sourcing profiles from two very large unsourced GEDCOMS, one is the infamous DeCoursey.  I finished sources for about 150 of them.  The other is one with many of my family, but as there is apparently over 3000 of them, I only intend to source them and only do profiles on my direct line for now.  At eighty I do not foresee ever finishing just the sourcing.

Answer 9

Chris, I can see that this feature may be useful, and it appears to be garnering support.  For me, it's not one that I would rank at the top of a priority list for suggested improvements.  I don't know what other candidate improvements may be waiting in the wings (and I'm not looking to earn a new "Rabble-Rouser" badge here), but I wonder if it would be at all feasible to toss out three or four or a half dozen of these candidate improvements and allow the masses to vote on them, and set the priorities?  I think we all get that there are limited resources available and you can't do everything, or even most things, anybody suggests.

Answer 10

Yes!!  It's so helpful in indicating a researcher reviewed those people and teased out the relationship. Having them listed as a sibling or not at all is vague.

Answer 11

What will happen when there is no certainty.

 Eg:  an early  17th C man who married twice.  He had seven children but only 2 can be definitely assigned to wife no 1 and only 3 to wife number 2. The middle two are known from wills including their own but there are no  known records of their birth or age at death. At the moment they are just assigned to the father with notes on their profile

Comments

I just noticed that if a sibling does not have one of the parents assigned they are designated half.

I was entering the mother for children who had the same father.  

1.  Children with same father and no mother - No Indicator.

2. Children with same father and one with mother added the second no mother listed - Half Indicator (so known and unknown = Half)

3. Add in the same mother for the second child - No Indicator.

So the [half] indictor appears if the children do not show the same second parent.  Known or Unknown.

Answer 12

Sounds great, Chris! Thanks!

Answer 13

Has this been implemented?

I have siblings all with the same father and unknown mother, some show as [half] for no reason.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Auld-374

Comments

Yes, interesting.  When looking at each sibling, all have an unknown mother but the [half] indicator does not show on all siblings.  Yet it appears that they all have the same unknown mother in that no mother has been indicated.

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I think this must be that some have "0" for a mother and some have no mother, i.e. an entry of zero vs. a completely blank/null entry. The profiles were created years apart and I think our methods changed over time. In most cases it doesn't matter, but here it does. I'll look into it.

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Thank you Chris.

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This has now been fixed.

(And the feature has been enhanced so the mouse-over title line is specific about why the other person is a half-sibling, e.g. "X has a father but Y has no father" or "X and Y both have fathers but they are different.")

Thanks for reporting it, Valerie.

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Thank you for the speedy fix Chris :)

Answer 14

I would like to see a way to attach them to the parent they belong to.  Like a man with 5 wives.  The wives could have children from 2 or three husbands and they all get jammed under the name of one husband.

Comments

Hi Trudy,

Are you talking about children, not siblings?

Conceivably we could group children by spouse on profile pages. But that might over-complicate the layout. The family group sheets are designed for illustrating this.

Chris

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Thank you Chris.  I don't know what the family lay out pages are.  But yes I am talking about half sibblings.

Answer 15

Thanks, Chris. I notice this also shows up when we only have entered one parent for siblings, even if they are full siblings.

 

Sharon

Answer 16

Hi Chris! Great idea.

I notice that currently the text reads: "X and sibling both have fathers but they are different." This phrasing seems a bit awkward and possibly confusing. Perhaps a better phrasing would be: "X and Y have the same mother but different fathers." This would identify both individuals and also be specific about which parent is shared.

Thanks!

Answer 17

I don't like the idea of making a distinction between siblings and half-siblings. I think it would be offensive and hurtful to some people. Please don't do it.

Answer 18

I would have a g g grand mother married 3x, had bunch's of children split between the 3.