Home > Technical Support > Spouseless Relationships

If you enter one parent and their children on a Family Page and leave the field for the second parent (or spouse) blank, Family Tree Detective defines it as a spouseless relationship. If you want to show that someone was married, but you don't know the name of the spouse or don't want to enter it, it's best to type Unknown in the field -- this way you avoid spouseless relationships and acknowledge to Family Tree Detective that a union existed. However, sometimes you may create these relationships inadvertently, and you need a way to remove them from your files.

To dissolve a spouseless relationship, we start by going to the Family Page for the associated individual:

1. Click on the Index of Individual's button.

2. Select the individual in the index who has the spouseless relationship, the press the Go To Family Page button.

Figure 1: The Index of Individuals

Family Tree Detective displays the Family Page for the person you selected.
3. Press the Other Spouses button under the person's name.

Figure 2: The Spouses button

Family Tree Detective displays the Spouses dialog box.
4. Click on Spouseless relationship 1, and press OK to go to this Family Page.

Figure 3: The Spouses dialog box

Note: If you see more than one spouseless relationship listed here, click on the first one. Once you're finished with these steps, you'll need to repeat the process for the others.

Family Tree Detective displays the appropriate Family Page. Notice that there is no spouse listed. At this point, you could simply type a spouse into the empty field and solve the problem. But what if you want to remove the relationship altogether? The key to dissolving a spouseless relationship is detaching the children. Without a spouse and children, a relationship can't exist.

5. Select the first child with the cursor (you can simply click in the field where you type the name).

6. From the People menu, select Fix Relationship Mistakes, then Detach child.

Figure 4: Detaching a child

If there are multiple children, repeat this process for each child listed on the Family Page.

Family Tree Detective dissolves the spouseless relationship when you detach the last child and returns you to the Family Page for the associated individual.