I have a love/hate relationship with Ancestry.com. Well, a like/annoyed relationship, really. I got information on my (putative) father's family from Ancestry, and I couldn't find that anywhere else, because only my mom knew any of it, and she wouldn't talk about him. Like, I never knew his father immigrated from Canada! And he was a beekeeper! And that was worth knowing.

I pay for the service and I rarely use it. I tried building a family tree and it just annoyed me. For one thing they wanted me to enter first names, but my mom didn't go by her first name, neither did my granddad, and neither do I. And I can't figure out how to create a "family tree" when my sister and I don't have the same fathers.

I can't figure out how to create a "family tree" when my sister and I don't have the same fathers.

That's a major usability fail. That should be pretty key to a decent system. I figure if they can handle my family, they should be good. But no system I got ten years ago handles the FTM issue. I hope they're updated for more gender flexibility.

I never did work out how to track adulterous relationships properly, though, in any of the ones I used.

The genealogy program I use has options for multiple spouses and attendant kids. I create the trees in the program then import them into online databases.

It is pretty easy to add different parents for siblings. I have done it often.

You'd think a LDS database would have allowed for multiple spouses long before most dealt with the issue...

What every genealogy program worth its salt needs is an "It's complicated" relationship.

What every genealogy program worth its salt needs is an "It's complicated" relationship.

That's why they have dotted lines on the family tree.

or a fosterage relationship.

Curse you Buffistas: I just spent 2 hours on ancestry.com, looking for my mother's family. I found her mother, and her mother's aunt, but I can't find my gmother's parents, and I can't figure out her mother's maiden name, because I don't know if the aunt is on her mother's side or father's.

Basically, when my grandmother was a child, her parents both died and she was sent to live with her aunt, who already had four older sons, and my grandmother was the live-in help until she married and moved out. At which she became the live-in help for my grandfather.

I was hoping the data on the aunt would lead me to her parents, but it doesn't. Feh.

And let me tell you: there are way too many Currans/Currens in NY and PA in the late 1800s.

It is pretty easy to add different parents for siblings. I have done it often.

It's... possible I didn't have the attention span to figure it out.

Once I created the family tree, I couldn't figure out how to get away from it and look for someone who wasn't (officially) part of it. The program seemed to be shoving me back to the tree. Again, maybe I didn't stick with it long enough.

When my great-grandmother died, leaving four children, her spinster sister moved in and took care of the children and her brother-in-law for the rest of her life. What the relationship was between her and him, I don't know. I hope she was happy.