I wish to be able to clearly and succinctly identify the sources, and logic used to establish a parent child relationship. This is not usually as simple as citing an individual source, but for me often requires establishing a "network" of interlocking bits of evidence. This does not seem to be supported in many Genealogy programs, and I've been told that the reason for that is that the capability is not built into the GedCom standards. If that's the case, then this would seem to be a severe problem. I can't think of anything more important than establishing parent child relationships. Can anyone confirm that this is in fact a limitation in the GedCom standards? Quolla6@gmail.com

> I wish to be able to clearly and succinctly identify the sources, > and logic used to establish a parent child relationship. This is not > usually as simple as citing an individual source, but for me often > requires establishing a "network" of interlocking bits of evidence. > This does not seem to be supported in many Genealogy programs, and > I've been told that the reason for that is that the capability is > not built into the GedCom standards. > > If that's the case, then this would seem to be a severe problem. I > can't think of anything more important than establishing parent > child relationships. > > Can anyone confirm that this is in fact a limitation in the GedCom > standards? > > Quolla6@gmail.com Like many things involving GEDCOM, it depends on your interpretation. GEDCOM 5.5 does not support a citation for a specific father-son relationship, for instance. However, it does support source citations for the "family structure" which includes both parents and all children. The text of each citation could arguably specify which binary relationship is being documented. But if GEDCOM does not support something which you think is critical for your research, is that a good reason for your software to not support it? GEDCOM is the lowest common denominator. If you are willing to limit yourself to data which is supported by (or, let's say, reliably transferable by) GEDCOM, then you'll be missing out on a whole lot more than relationship citations. Bob Velke Wholly Genes, Inc. Bob Velke <bvelke@whollygenes.com>