Some families are a little bit complicated. And if one is not careful it can be easy to enter the incorrect relationships in our genealogical database. What I do in these situations is to map out the relationships on paper first in an attempt to get a broader view of the family and in an attempt to understand the relationships correctly.
Once I think I have the relationships down, I begin my data entry. Wasting time “fixing” relationship mistakes is time I could spend doing actual research.
2 Responses
What software are you using that you have to enter a relationship? Surely you know if the person you are entering is a spouse or child of either one or two people? If you don’t know that, why are you adding them to your tree?
My point was not to enter any relationship until you are reasonably certain of it. Some enter relationships when they really aren’t certain or don’t have the family figured out. Of course everyone has multiple relationships (parent, child, spouse, etc.). But a person can easily locate a person in a record and not know if they are a sibling or first cousin to a specific person. If they aren’t certain they can track that person, but I wouldn’t enter a relationship if I don’t know it. Some people add unrelated people to their database which usually can be done.