Family Tree Maker is designed in a way that it can also handle family structures that do not fit into a simple one-marriage family tree. If someone in your family married twice or more, you can keep the earlier marriage in the tree and add the later spouse without deleting anything.
This is very useful when adding a divorce and remarriage to a family tree.
The first marriage of a person still belongs in the family history, even though the relationship ended. Family Tree Maker lets you change the status of that relationship to divorced and then add another spouse.
The steps are simple to follow once you know where the relationship settings are located.
First, mark the earlier marriage as divorced. Let’s say a man named Peter married Joanna in 1978. They divorced in 1990, and Peter married Susan in 1993.
Start with Peter and Joanna.
1. Open your tree in Family Tree Maker
2. Go to the People workspace
3. Select the Tree tab
4. Click Peter or Joanna.
5. Open the Person tab.
6. Click Relationships at the top.
7. Select the spouse whose relationship you want to change.
The relationship information will appear in the editing area.
Look for the Status field. A current marriage will show as ongoing. Open the drop-down menu and select Divorced.
That changes the status of Peter and Joanna’s existing relationship. It does not remove either person from the tree.
This is an important point when adding divorce and remarriage in a family tree. You are not replacing the old marriage with the new one. Both relationships need to remain in the record.
MacKiev’s FTM documentation explains how relationship type and relationship status can be specified in Family Tree Maker 2024.
Add The Divorce Date If You Know It
Once the relationship is marked as divorced, you can record the divorce details.
If you have a divorce record, enter the date and place shown on it. For example:
Divorce: 12 August 1990
Place: Dallas, Texas
The exact way you enter the date depends on where you are recording the fact in your tree, but the important thing is to use the information you can support with a source.
Don’t enter an exact divorce date simply because it seems likely.
Sometimes the only information available is that a couple was together in one census and living separately a few years later. That may give you a useful time range, but it does not tell you the legal divorce date.
You can continue your research and update the tree when you find better evidence.
Add Second Spouse
After Peter and Joanna’s relationship has been changed to divorced, you can add Susan as Peter’s new spouse.
Select Peter in the tree and use the Spouse button.
Choose: Add Spouse and enter Susan’s information
Family Tree Maker creates a separate relationship for Peter and Susan. You can then add their complete marriage information.
So Peter now has two separate relationships:
Peter and Joanna
Married -1978
Divorced – 1990
Peter and Susan
Married – 1993
This approach helps you handle multiple spouses in a Family Tree Maker. There is no reason to remove Joanna because Peter later married Susan.
What happens to the children?
This question often comes up when working with a divorced and remarried family.
Suppose Peter and Joanna had two children before they divorced. Peter and Susan later had another child.
The first two children should stay connected to Peter and Joanna. The third child belongs to Peter and Susan.
You don’t need to create a completely separate person for a person just because he has another spouse. Family Tree Maker can associate that person with more than one family.
This becomes very useful when working with larger trees. A person may have children with two or more spouses, and each family relationship needs to be kept separate.
If a child is adopted or has another type of documented parent relationship, Family Tree Maker also lets you specify the relationship type rather than assuming every parent-child relationship is biological.
What Is The Difference Between Divorce And Remarriage On A Family Tree?
The difference between divorce and remarriage on a family tree is mainly how the two events are recorded.
- A divorce ends an existing relationship
- A remarriage starts another spouse relationship
For example:
John + Anne
Marriage: 1965
Divorce: 1978
John + Carol
Marriage: 1981
John’s marriage to Anne has not disappeared. It remains part of his history, while Carol is recorded as another spouse.
This also helps when you are researching the family later. A person who appears with a different spouse in a later record will make more sense when both marriages are present in the tree.
How To Manage Relationships In FTM
If you are unsure where a particular spouse or relationship belongs, the Relationships section in the People workspace is a good place to check.
Select the person and open the Person > Relationships section. You can review the relationships connected to that individual and select the one you want to change.
This tab is also where you can review the relationship status.
It is worth checking this screen when a person has been married several times. Otherwise, it is easy to edit the wrong relationship.
For example, if someone has three spouses, don’t assume that changing the status while one spouse is selected will affect all three marriages. The status belongs to the particular relationship you are editing.
What If Someone Has More Than Two Spouses?
Family Tree Maker can record additional spouses. You can add another spouse using the Spouse* option and then enter the information for that relationship.
For example, a person might have:
- First spouse: Married 1960, divorced 1972
- Second spouse: Married 1975, widowed 1990
- Third spouse: Married 1993
All three relationships can remain in the tree.
When someone has several spouses, you may also need to decide which spouse should appear as the preferred spouse in certain views. Family Tree Maker provides options for setting the spouse order and selecting a preferred spouse.
Changing the preferred spouse does not delete the other relationships. It only affects which relationship Family Tree Maker uses as the default in particular tree views, charts, or reports.
How Is A Divorce Shown On The Tree?
The way a divorce looks on screen can depend on the Family Tree Maker view and the version you are using.
FTM 2024 can display relationship status information in the tree, including a divorced status. The relationship itself remains in place rather than disappearing from the family.
This approach is different from some hand-drawn family tree conventions.
If you are drawing a family tree on paper, you may see a marriage represented by a horizontal line between two people with slash marks through the line to indicate divorce. That is a visual convention.
In Family Tree Maker, however, you store the useful information in the relationship itself. You can record the relationship status and the relevant facts instead of relying only on a symbol.
Final Thoughts
Divorce and remarriage do not have to make your family tree difficult to manage. Family Tree Maker lets you keep earlier marriages, record the correct relationship status, add multiple spouses, and connect children to the right parents.
If you need help managing relationships, or adding spouses in Family Tree Maker, Family Tree Makers Support can help you work through the issue and keep your tree organized.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can Family Tree Maker show multiple spouses?
Answer: Yes, Family Tree Maker can record multiple spouse relationships for the same individual. Each spouse can have a separate relationship, with its marriage information and relationship status.
- How do I add children from a second marriage?
Answer: Add the second spouse as a separate relationship first in the Family Tree Maker. You can then add the children of that marriage to the appropriate family.
For children from the first marriage, keep them connected to their original parents.
- What if I do not know the divorce date?
Answer: You can still record the divorce if you have reliable evidence that the marriage ended. Do not enter an exact date unless your records support it.
- Does changing a relationship to divorced remove the marriage from your tree?
Answer: No, changing the relationship status to divorce does not remove the people or the earlier marriage from your tree. It records that the relationship ended.
This is why changing the status is preferable to deleting the first spouse when someone later remarries.
- Can I change the status of the wrong spouse relationship?
If a person has several spouses, make sure you select the correct spouse in the Relationships section before changing the status. The status applies to the particular relationship you have selected. This is especially important when working with multiple spouses in a Family Tree Maker, because changing one relationship does not mean that all of the person’s marriages will receive the same status.
- Does Family Tree Maker support complicated family relationships?
Yes, Family Tree Maker allows you to specify relationship types and statuses for couples and parent-child relationships. Newer versions also include improvements for managing relationships and displaying non-traditional relationships in charts and reports.