Frequently Asked Questions

This happens when you accidentally assign the wrong gender to a person. When you later add a spouse to that person, AQ automatically assigns the opposite sex to the spouse.

In order to change the sex of an individual, you must first unlink them from all marriages, then change the gender, and then you will re-link them. The process is really quite simple. We will describe the easiest method:

1. Within the database containing this issue, make a new backup of your database (go to File, then Backup and save the backup with a new name)
2. Next, access to the Family view
3. Locate one of the spouses whose gender needs to be corrected and move that record into the primary position (top left) of the screen
4. Now move one of the children of this marriage into the primary position, placing the reversed spouses into the Mother and Father positions over to the right (if this couple does not have children, you can add a child, temporarily, then delete the temporary child after the process is over)
5. Record the RINs of the two spouses, the MRIN of their marriage, and the RIN of the child who is currently in the Primary position
6. Right click on each of these two spouses in turn, and choose the Unlink option - this will remove them from the marriage, leaving the marriage record otherwise intact
7. If either spouse has other marriages, you will need to repeat steps 3 - 6 for the other marriages
8. Now edit each of these spouses and change the gender
9. Reselect the child from step 4 to be the primary person, verifying that the marriage whose MRIN you recorded in step 5 shows as the marriage of this child's parents
10. Click on the Add Father space to re-add the father. When you get to the Add Individual screen, select Search for Existing and enter the RIN of the father. This will re-link the father to the marriage record as the husband.
11. Click on the Add Mother space and follow the previous step to add the mother.

This is an easy mistake that is easy to correct.

In order to make this correction, you must unlink the children from the incorrect parents, then re-link them to the correct parents. The step-by-step process is described below.

1. In the main screen of Ancestral Quest, go to the Family view.
2. Position one of the incorrect parents into the primary position (the top-left box) with the other incorrect parent beneath.
3. Locate the children that you wish to remove from this relationship and make note of the RINs for those children.
4. Click the secondary (right) mouse button on each of these children in turn, and choose the Unlink option - this will remove each child from the current, incorrect parents, but leave their individual records intact.
5. Now, position one of the correct parents into the primary position (the top-left box), with the other correct parent beneath.
6. Down in the Children box, click on Add Child (or press Ctrl+L) to add a child.
7. Within the top-left area of the Add child for... screen that appears, click on Search for Existing Child....
8. In the Find Child for... window that opens, enter into the RIN: box the RIN for one of the children that you had removed from the previous marriage, and click OK. The child will now be added to the current, proper parents.
9. Repeat steps 6-8, above, as needed until all the children have been added to the correct parents.

When you delete an individual from a marriage, the marriage record still exists. Now, however, there is an empty placeholder for the spouse who was just unlinked or deleted. Whenever you display this marriage, AQ will look at that placeholder, and display “Unknown” -- indicating that AQ doesn't know who the spouse is. It is designed as a reminder to the user to locate information on the missing spouse and add the spouse to the marriage, at which point AQ will again “know” who the spouse is.

As long as the marriage record exists, it will show “Unknown” when there is an empty placeholder. If you want the marriage to go away, you need to edit the marriage record and click on the “Delete” button. Then the entire marriage, with any dates, places, sources, notes, as well as the empty placeholder, will all go away. Then you won't see “Unknown” anymore.

Note: If there are any children attached to the marriage record containing an “Unknown” spouse, they will be unlinked from the existing spouse when you delete that marriage record. Make note of the RINs of any children attached to the marriage with the Unknown spouse prior to deleting that marriage record. Then, you can access the correct marriage, and choose the “Add Child...” option, select “Search for Existing Child,” then enter the RIN for the child. Repeat this for each child that you need to re-link to the proper marriage.

On the Family view, notice the “Add'l Par/Rel” button between the parents of the primary person. If you click on this button, you will be able to add an additional set of parents to the person. This button is only available if you have already entered a first set of parents. Other methods to achieve the same result include:

• Go to the menu bar and click Add, then Parents
• Select the second set of parents as the primary couple on the Family screen. Then click on “Add Child”. When you get to the “Add Child...” screen, use the “Search for Existing Child” button to add this person as a child to this second set of parents.

With the person in the Primary position of the Family screen, use the Add'l Par/Rel button to view all the parents and relationship types for this person. You can also go the Edit menu and select Parent Links. Highlight the set of parents you wish to see and click on OK. If you wish to permanently set this set of parents as the default parents for this child, use the Make Primary button.

Sometimes the Relationship Indicators get confused. In order to fix it, you just need to have them re-calculated.

1. From the main screen of AQ, go to the menu bar and choose Tools, then Relationship Indicators.
2. Click the box labeled Show Relationships in Family View to remove the checkmark. Click OK.
3. Now, again, go to the menu bar and choose Tools, then Relationship Indicators.
4. Within the Select Root Person section, click the Search button to locate and select the individual for whom you wish the relationships to be calculated (this is known as the Root Person, and you, typically, want this to be yourself), and click OK.
5. Click the box labeled Show Relationships in Family View to insert the checkmark, if necessary. Click OK.
6. A window will appear to inform you that the relationship indicators have been updated. Click OK.

The relationships in the Family View should now display correctly for the individual you had selected.

The standard genealogy recording practice is that women are entered into a database, and hence viewed everywhere in the file, with their maiden name. But there are many times when doing your research that you may only have reference to a woman by her married name. In this tutorial, we will explain how to make it possible to view and search for a female individual based on her married name.

These instructions are also found in the built-in Ancestral Quest Help, under the Name List View Column Options topic.

1. In Ancestral Quest, access the Name List view, and position the mouse pointer in the heading area at the top of the columns (where you see the headings: RIN, Name, Date, Place).
2. Click the secondary (right) mouse button to open the QuickMenu.
3. Within the menu that appears, click on Modify Columns or Sort Order. The Name List View Column Options dialog box appears. The columns currently being shown in the Name List view appear in the top-right box. The top left box lists the additional columns that you can have appear in the Name List view.
4. In the top left Available Fields box, click the plus sign (+) next to Individual (if needed). You should see the items General, Standard Events Custom events, and so on underneath the word Individual.
5. Click the plus sign next to General. Click the field, Sex, then click the right pointing arrow (>) button to place the field in the list on the right.
6. Also in the upper-left Available Fields box, click the plus sign (+) next to Marriage, then click the plus sign (+) next to General. Click the field, Spouse Surname, then click the right pointing arrow (>) button to place the field in the list on the right.
7. Using the small Up and Down arrow buttons to the right of the Shown Fields list, you can click on a field and change its position up or down in the list. Place these fields into the order in which you would like the columns to appear, left-to-right, in the Name list view.
8. Now, we will set the sort order. In the lower-left Available Fields box, click the plus sign (+) next to Individual (if needed). Click the plus sign next to General. Click the field, Sex, then click the right pointing arrow (>) button to place the field in the Sort Fields list on the right.
9. Also in the lower-left Available Fields box, click the plus sign (+) next to Marriage, then click the plus sign next to General. Click the field, Spouse Surname, then click the right pointing arrow (>) button to place the field in the Sort Fields list on the right.
10. Finally, in the lower-left Available Fields box, under the General section, locate and click the field, Given Names, then click the right pointing arrow (>) button to place the field in the Sort Fields list on the right.
11. Click OK.
12. Scroll through the name list and you will see that it is ‘grouped’ by gender: unknown, then male, then female. Go to the grouping of females, and you will see that it is sorted by the females' married names. Now it is easy to find the individual you are looking for!