Stewart, You've made some very good suggestions. I'll keep your response handy should I ever need to help a patron accommodate such situations. I again apologize (as I will most likely do for some time to come!) for even responding to the original question. Apparently the only acceptable response, other than no response at all, would have been to give a big cheer in favor of the Church changing the PAF program. I don't know what other response was expected by the initial question. Thanks again for your sensible resolution to the question of how to record alternative family relationships. Linda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stewart Millar" <sm999@tiscali.co.uk> To: <PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 6:14 PM Subject: RE: [PAF-5] Acknowledging gay marriages in PAF--LDS content > > I am astounded at the controversy generated by this topic - as most of it > completely misses the point - there is no moral code embodied in the use > of > PAF - PAF is a system for recording our genealogical history. > > I have just tried linking spouses of the same sex in Legacy - and that is > also barred - I would imagine it is a very common condition in most > genealogical software. > > Unless I am missing something - I am sure it is the same in the US as > elsewhere in the world - two people of the same sex cannot produce > children. > > > PAF essentially records our biological descendancy - parents that are male > and female whether married or unmarried - there is an "adoptive" option > for > parents that are also designated as male and female. > > There are several adoption scenarios: > > * One of the parents is a biological parent to the children and are > respectively male and female --- in such cases I believe the child can > validly research their adoptive and/or biological line depending where > they > have the greatest filial association. > > * Both of the parents are adoptive and are respectively male and > female - > similarly, the child can follow the biological or adoptive line based on > whichever line there is a close filial association with - or indeed both. > > * If in either of the two scenarios above, both adoptive parents are of > the same sex - and this can only be a most modern and current innovation > practised currently in limited jurisdictions - and the family wish to > record > the two same sex individuals as parents - bearing in mind there will be no > natural children, this is going to be a minute fraction of a percentage of > any body's genealogy and will never appear in most peoples genealogy - the > solution would be to create two separate PAF databases, one for each > adoptive "parent" with appropriate notes to record the process and linkage > between both databases. One of these databases would be designated to > continue the descendancy of the children and the other to continue the > ancestry of one of the designated adoptive parents. And of course, the > ancestry of the biological parents, if required, can continue to be > maintained on the "main" database that carries the descendancy of the > children. > > There is absolutely no link between this functionality in PAF and the > beliefs and practices of the LDS church. > > Of course, this is only my view . . . . . . . . > > Regards, > Stewart > > > > ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List ==== > RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: > Connecting the World One GEDCOM at a Time > http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ > >