A non-biological parent doesn't result in half-sibling relationships?

+6 votes
226 views
When one of an individual's parents is set to non-biological, why is Wikitree not indicating their siblings as half-brothers/sisters?
in WikiTree Help by Mike Wells G2G6 Pilot (132k points)
retagged by Mike Wells

1 Answer

+4 votes
non-biological means the siblings aren't related.
by Dennis Wheeler G2G6 Pilot (569k points)
Let's clarify with an example:

A couple raises 2 children. One of the children only has one of the parents as biological, the other is non-biological. The other child has both parents as biological. Logically, both children should have their siblings listed as person name [half].  Correct?

no, because they are not half

half siblings share one biological parent.

otherwise, they would be step siblings (which WikiTree doesn't display)

edit: rereading your post -- yes, if they share one biological parent, then they would listed as half

make sure the shared parent has the same Wiki-ID (if not, then the parent has a duplicate that would need to be merged.

All of that has been ensured. It doesn't work.
have you got a link to the profile so we can take a look (assuming its public, so we can see it)?
As I read through this thread, I think Mike is correct that the children should be shown as half siblings.  I haven't seen the issue come up before, but I wonder if the software that determines the half-sibling display fails to look for the non-biological tag on the parent and just assumes that the listed parent is the biological parent.  If that's the case, I think it should be reported as a bug (by adding the tag 'bugs' to the question).  Mike, if there's nothing sensitive involved, could you perhaps add links to the profiles in question?
Here's an example: Wells-15090
I agree with the other Dennis... this looks like a bug.
Mike, who are the half siblings in the example?  The siblings shown for that profile all have the same parents and so do the children?

The siblings of this individual should be half siblings? Correct?

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wells-15090

I think I see the problem, Mike.  The father of Wells-15090 is marked nonbiological, but the same father of all the siblings has no marking.  I'm willing to bet that you have to mark the father of the siblings as uncertain, confident, or confirmed by DNA for their relationships to Henry to be shown as half … not that I think it's right, but give it a try and see if that does it.

I recommend that you edit your question and add the tag bugs because I think this should not require a status selection for the father's connection to all the children.
Where are you seeing the non-biological marking?
Logically that doesn't really make sense Gaile, because Wikitree will propagate DNA ancestry for "default" parentage settings.
Dennis B., click on edit and you see the non-biological setting for the father. Apparently Wikitree won't show that status outside of the edit?
Dennis, you have to look at the edit page to see it - there's no indication of it on the view page - probably should be, in my opinion.

Mike, I know it doesn't make sense - that's why I said if it turns out that they'll show as half if you mark status for the others, then it should be considered a bug.  For emphasis - I don't know that this is the cause, but just taking a wild guess that it might be.
Aaah, yeah, I see what you're saying.  Without pondering all this really deeply tonight, it seems to make no sense at all that you would only show that status on the edit screen.  And to the earlier point, why should the software that figures out half siblings go look at everybody's edit screen?  I think there really is a flaw here that ought to get fixed, whether your first speculation about somehow marking the father of the other siblings works or not.
Dennis, the software doesn't "look" at any screen - only the fields in the table(s) that its algorithms require.  I think that what's happening is that the logic that results in decision of half or full relationship between siblings is only looking at whether either father or mother is different for two children.  When father is the same, it's not looking for whether father is nonbiological - it just assumes relationship is full (unless mothers are different, of course).  I know that if 2 children have same mother, but one has a father and the other has no father, they are shown as half siblings.

On second thought, please scratch my first speculation - the above is a much more likely explanation.
I agree Gaile.

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