Genealogy Chat

Is there any particular way on a GR family tree to show the birth of twins (or other multiple births)? Is there any way to get the birth order correct? - I'm not sure how GR decides to show the order of birth.

It decides on the year, so its probably best to enter the name of the first born twin (and save) before the second.

If it doesn't work out quite as planned, then add the time of birth into the notes. You'd probably have to write that they were twins anyway as there is no 'event' that covers that.

Vital events which are identified are
Birth - year, date and where
Baptism- date and where
Marriage - date, where and to whom, divorced
Death- year, date and where
Relationships - Mother and Father

Everything else has to go into the notes.

If its important for you to be able to see who was born in which order without opening up the details section, you could add to the first name such as Jane twin 1 (or one) (middle name) (surname)

If you put the names in your tree, you'll find out how GR displays them.

Thanks, Reggie - I've already done that and found out. It's the wrong way.

I have Lauren before Daniel, even though the births were the other way around, so do I assume it's 'ladies first'? I know Daniel was first born and I'll have entered him first.

For another pair, I have William before Michael so it's not alphabetical. Without actually knowing the birth order for this pair, I suspect I will have entered William first because the father's name was also William.

So I'm not much the wiser. It might have been easier if GR had just said somewhere at the start.

Thanks, Detective...

Is it vital?

And, as the names sound very modern, do you have permission from the individuals concerned to include them in your GR tree?

Just checking...............

Is it vital? - no, merely desirable...

Although I have multiple births in my line, they are way back in time. Because of that, I'm not bothered who has born first.

I have an offline tree - Family Historian.

Using that, I've reordered the twins. That is now reflected in the 'descendents view' family tree for their parents. There is no 'event' where the time of birth can be entered - it might be possible to create one even though the programme won't take that into consideration when building a tree diagram. If the correct order is vital for you, then I suggest you invest in something similar.

An alternative more popular offline programme is Familytree maker (which contains a short sub to Ancestry) If a user of that programme spots this thread, they may be able to comment if manual re-ordering is possible.

There are other offline tree programmes available to purchase.

Well, I'm a recently retired Registrar of some year's standing so it's ingrained into my psyche to get the birth order correct!

Most people would have no idea how stringent the registration software is when registering multiple births, so that the order the births as shown in the Birth Register is the same as the order in which the babies appeared. The Registrar is asked, effectively, the same question 5-6 times in quick succession to ensure this happens. Amongst other things, this is to do with succession and inheritance but Registrars, as a breed, just like to have things correct - and people here should be glad they do!

Anyway, that may go some way to explaining my (seeming) obsession with what, to some people here, might appear to be a trifling detail...

Ooooo - you shouldn't to have admitted to that! Now we'll all turn to you when we want registration clarification in general terms! :-D

You could ask GR directly if they have any plans to incorporate such a system to ensure the order of birth, although as users we'd probably say that they ought to have other priorities to fix the site.

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Reggie did raise the issue of having to obtain the permission of living people before you add them to your on-line tree. It is against the sites T&C if you do so. Just a thought.

If you haven't entered much data for them (and no spouses or decendants) then it might be possible to swap them round by editing the names.

Thanks...

I have one of the older versions of FTM and you can "Sort Children". This puts them into chronological order, and any multiple births stay in the order in which you entered them.

A Gedcom uploading the tree to Genes should keep them in the same order, but they don't always behave as they should!!