Which family tree programs can handle pedigree collapse?

[peter]

I had an email before Christmas from a LostCousins member who reckoned that family tree programs generally aren't able to handle the situation where ancestors were cousins without everything being duplicated.

This surprised me, but then I've yet to find any cousins in my direct line who married (there are lots of instances of two brothers marrying two sisters, but that's not the same). And Genopro, which I mostly use, can handle just about anything.

So I thought it would be interesting to ask which programs are particularly good - or bad - at handling cousin marriages in the direct line of home person.

 

[canadianbeth]

My Family Historian program draws a line between the two brothers whose children married. I am trying to do a screenshot to show; hopefully, it works.

 

[peter]

OK, so am I right in thinking that it duplicates the shared ancestral lines on the screen, but not in the database?

 

[jorghes]

My tree has plenty of pedigree collapse and cousins intermarriage, and FTM seems to handle it ok, it’s Ancestry that can go a little postal. (I have a photo, but it is refusing to update properly, so I can't show it - of Ancestry going postal).

Here you can see an extension of where two sisters had their children marry - I have highlighted the applicable duplication. (He's not in the database twice).

 

[Bryman]

I also use GenoPro and although I do not have instances of cousins marrying within my direct ancestors, there are some between other blood relatives. This software is flexible and if left to its own devices would probably produce something similar to the FTM example given by jorghes above (post #4), with only a single instance in the database for each person.

I prefer to try and keep a separate tree for each surname (to keep charts untangled) which does lead to some duplication as I like details to be immediately available from both family views. I could alternatively keep details only with the birth individual and let the other instance of that person be just a 'pointer' to their 'base' family. Then, clicking on the 'foreign' spouse would link to that person in the other family and hence any details recorded there. That would save me having to record details in both places but I have fallen into the habit of duplication of individuals for all marriages, not just for cousins, and don't intend to change that now for over 400 trees.

I have not investigated to see if there is any preferred handling of this situation within this software.

 

[canadianbeth]

I do not know enough about Family Historian to find the database, but James and Sarah are only listed once in my FTM list of names.

 

[AdrienneQ]

First all the records are only in the database once and I am happy with how FTM deals with this
I have a brother and sister who's children marry.
FTM shows what I would expect with the shared Grandparents shown twice in both family and Pedigree view
Ancestry does the same in Pedigree view
I got a garbled view of the world in Family view on Ancestry, where the cousins who marry are show twice as are their children, however the grandparents are only shown once

 

[Helen7]

I get the same as Adrienne for children of cousin marriages in both FTM and Ancestry. No duplication of records in the database but shared grandparents shown twice in pedigree view and FTM family view, with cousins and children shown twice in Ancestry family view.

I find Ancestry family view generally confusing, and FTM much clearer and easier to see what's going on, though some duplication in the family tree view seems inevitable to show the relationships.

I have a pair of direct ancestors who were step-siblings when they married and share several younger half siblings. Ancestry shows a garbled view of this, whereas in FTM her father - who married his mother when the children were both about 14 - are next to each other in the family view, and the half siblings are shown twice - once from each parent (again, no duplication of records, just in the on-screen tree view).

 

[jorghes]

Ancestry does struggle to show those relationships. As AndrienneQ showed, it tends to duplicate in that view. It can get worse though, as it does when it tries to show one family group for me. As you can see - the numbers of lines beneath the duplicated couple shows. But choose one other person in that family and it all evens up.