----- Original Message ----- From: "David E. Cann" <decann@infi.net> To: <FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 7:10 PM Subject: [FO] Ancestor Book > I have just printed out an "Ancestor Book" for my wife's line, with the > "Ancestors and children" option selected, but when I printed out the > document, my wife noticed right away that her half-sister (same father, > different mother) was left out of the printed document, with only her five > "full" siblings included. I have never noticed this before, but is this > normal? Is there a way of "forcing" FO (I am using 9.02) to include such a > family member? I have long complained about this limitation in FO, as half-sibling are, after all, a common phenomenon (I have two of them myself, each by a different step-mother). I think it stems from the ahnentafel form of the ancestor report, which assigns a unique number to each ancestor, even ones for male ancestors, odd ones for female. It's a great, indeed elegant system. But a surprising number of people seem to think it was brought down from Mt. Sinai by Moses along with the Torah and is thus inviolate: flesh-and-blood ancestors, and their children begotten by flesh-and-blood ancestors only maybe included, lest the world come to an end. It is *not* sacred. The ahnentafel form is a tool that may be adapted to other uses, just as we use a screw driver to open a can of paint. If other spouses of ancestors are included along with half siblings, I promise you that the sun will rise in the east the next morning right on schedule. Could someone answer me a question? Is it technically possible for the ancestor report to be designed so as to be able to produce something like the following?: 48 David Smith. Born, died, blah blah blah. He was married to Mary Jones on October 14th, 1936, in New York City. David Smith and Mary Jones had the following children. John Smith Mary Smith He was married to Elizabeth Brown on March 23rd, 1947, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 49 Elizabeth Brown was born, died, blah blah blah. David Smith and Elizabeth Brown had the following children. David Smith, Junior. Elizabeth Smith I don't know much about programming (OK, OK, I don't know anything about programming), but I can't imagine this would pose insuperable difficulties. It would solve Mr. Cann's problem, my problem, and a lot of other people's problems in this regard. Then the only problem would be the wailing and lamentation of the ahnentafel police, who have some sort of weird psychological investment in preventing such a report from being generated lest the seven plagues of Egypt return. If such as above is technically possible, would Bruce PLEASE consider allowing us to have it? I will personally guarantee it will not cause catastrophic climate changes. By the way, adding half-siblings in an RTF file seems simple, but it is not. I find the tabbing so complex that, except for adding text within a paragraph, it is nearly impossible to get things to line up correctly after I add or subtract something. The more I try to make things look right, the wronger they go until things are such a mess I have to give up and start over. JSG