How Are You Related? Let Legacy Family Tree Calculate the Ways!

By Marilyn Mullins Schunke

Are you related to a direct-line ancestor in more than one way? If you are not certain, do you know how to find out? What method have you used to determine ALL the different ways in which you are related to an ancestor or another individual? This has been my dilemma for years, until I discovered the answer in Legacy Family Tree.

 Let me explain.

My paternal grandmother, Mabel Clair Maris, was a birth-right Quaker – meaning her parents were both members of the Quaker (Society of Friends) religion when she was born. The Quakers are a very close-knit community and members were “disowned,” i.e. removed from membership if they married outside their faith. The Quakers also tended to move from one community to another as groups of families. Consequently, several of my Quaker immigrant ancestor’s descendants migrated from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and ultimately to Indiana and intermarried along the way.

My four paternal 2nd-great-grandparent’s surnames are MARIS, JONES, HADLEY, and WOODY. All four of these 2nd-great-grandparents descend from various immigrant ancestors in more than one way. In the instance of HADLEY, all four descend from the same couple.

Knowing a little of my Quaker ancestral history hopefully will help explain why I LOVE the Relationship Calculator and its optional reporting feature, Relationship Charts, in my genealogy software program, Legacy Family Tree, by Millennia Corporation.

The following shows the relationships of my four paternal 2nd-great-grandparents of my Immigrant Ancestors:

• Simon HADLEY II (Ruth Miller) – 6th-great-grandfather (twice), and 7th-great-grandfather (twice). All four of my paternal 2nd-great-grandparents descend from this couple – Thomas HADLEY, William O. MARIS, Mary Ann WOODY, and Mary JONES.
• Henry HOLLIDAY (Mary Fayle) – 5th great-grandfather (twice), and 6th-great-grandfather. Three 2nd-great-grandparents descend from Henry and Mary – Thomas HADLEY, William O. MARIS, and Mary Ann WOODY.
• James LINDLEY (Eleanor Parke) – 6th-great-grandfather, and 7th-great-grandfather (twice). Three 2nd-great-grandparents descend from James and Eleanor – William O. MARIS, Mary Ann WOODY, and Mary JONES.

All these multiple descendancies from my immigrant ancestors to these four people, obviously suggests I must have multiple relationships with several of them. But how can I sort this all out? Over the years I tried using tables, spreadsheets and various forms of color coding. But it became beyond confusing and never provided me with all the answers I sought. With reuse of given names such as Joshua and Joseph in my Hadley line, and James and John in my Woody line, etc., it became even more difficult to follow the ancestry up and down my tree. I began to better sort it out when I started using Ahnentafel numbers as my UserID in Legacy.

PART 1: Relationship Calculator

The Relationship Calculator in Legacy was my salvation in the process of understanding my intertwining relationships. When I fully learned to use the capability of the Relationship Calculator and the reports it could generate, I finally had my answers. The Relationship Calculator became one of my favorite tools in Legacy.  It allowed me to see EXACTLY the various ways in which I am I related to each of those four 2nd-great-grandparents – William O. MARIS and spouse Mary JONES, and Thomas HADLEY and spouse Mary Ann WOODY.

In the case of my 2nd-great-grandfather William O. Maris, I am related to him an additional six ways. Figure 1 below provides a partial graphic view of the Relationship Calculator showing my various relationships to him. To enlarge it enough to make it readable, I snipped portions of the results and pasted them together to form Figure 1. So, keep in mind the image below is not a full representation of the tool. Refer to Figure 1 as I walk you through it.

I selected Marilyn Ann Mullins as the “Left Person” and William O. Maris as the “Right Person;” and then I selected “Calculate Relationships” (not shown in Figure 1). The Relationship Calculator returned the results indicating “Common Ancestors (7)” with the first relationship being that of my closest relationship to William as my “2nd great-grandfather.”

The subsequent entries show the other 6 Common Ancestors in order of the next closest relationships and specifies the relationship to each:

• William HOLADAY with spouse Jane ANDREW – 1C4R
• Henry HOLADAY with spouse Mary FAYLE – 2C5R
• Thomas LINDLEY with spouse Ruth HADLEY – 2C5R
• Simon HADLEY II with spouse Ruth MILLER – 3C4R
• Simon HADLEY II with spouse Ruth MILLER – 3C5R, and finally
• James LINDLEY with spouse Eleanor PARKE – 3C5R (Highlighted in Black)

Below that is the “Descent from Common Ancestor” for me and William O. Maris.

• Left side shows “9,” the number of generations from the highlighted Common Ancestor down to me. Below that is my name and the line of ascent from me up to James LINDLEY and Eleanor PARKE.
       Notice the fifth line down is Mary Ann WOODY, one of my other 2nd-great-grandparents identified at the beginning of this article.

• Right side shows “4,” the number of generations from the highlighted Common Ancestor down to William O. Maris. Below that is his name and the line of ascent from him up to James LINDLEY and Eleanor PARKE.

The highlighted Mary LINDLEY (left side) and Thomas LINDLEY (right side) are siblings born 10 years apart, the daughter and son of James and Eleanor. The next 3 lines on either side line up across from each other, showing James WOODY and William O. MARIS as 3rd cousins. The left side then has me and another four individuals in my ancestry, equaling 5 times removed from William O. MARIS. So not only does the top portion of the image specify “3rd cousin 5 times removed,” but the lower portion graphically shows exactly how that relationship occurs.

Figure 1: Composite of Relationship Calculator in Marilyn Schunke's Legacy Family Tree. Marilyn Ann Mullins and William O. Maris are related 7 different ways. The bottom portion shows the ancestry of Marilyn and William O. Maris back to James Lindley (Marilyn’s Ahnentafel #s 324, 696, and 738) and his wife, Eleanor Parke (Marilyn’s Ahnentafel #s 325, 697, and 739)

I can highlight each one of the lines in the top portion and get the graphical representation of my relationship to William O. Maris through each of our Common Ancestors. That gives me a quick and dirty look at the information. The print feature within the Relationship Calculator allows me to print a Relationship Chart with more detailed information based on options I set. Legacy is full of options allowing for customization of views and reports.

I will demonstrate the Relationship Chart next based on information I obtained in the Spring of 2017. Janet Camarata and I took a genealogy research road trip with our destination being the 2017 National Genealogical Society Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. During that trip I was fortunate to meet several distant cousins. One was a 90-year-old gentleman named John Allen. We met up at the History Room of the Cane Creek Meeting House in Snow Camp, Alamance County, North Carolina.

Janet Camarata (left) and Marilyn Schunke (right) with Marilyn’s newly
found cousins Judy and John Braxton, John Allen and Lisa Cox. The Braxtons
believe they may be related to Janet on their German sides, but have not
proven it yet

My MARIS, HADLEY, WOODY, HOLLIDAY (HOLADAY), LINDLEY, and WOODY ancestors all lived in this vicinity from the mid-1700s to early 1800s when they migrated to Indiana. Not only was John Allen a wealth of information on my Quaker ancestors, but we also share common ancestors. John descends from Simon HADLEY and Ruth MILLER – the same couple from whom all four of my 2nd-great-grandparents descend. I asked John for his line of ascent to them. I wanted to understand exactly how John and I were related. The only information John provided was the names in his direct line back to Simon HADLEY II and Ruth MILLER. I input the new names he provided into Legacy. I was very surprised to see the results the Relationship Calculator generated. John and I are related 11 different ways!

PART 2: Relationship Chart – print feature within Relationship Calculator

To demonstrate the print feature of the Relationship Calculator, I’m presenting a portion of the Relationship Chart showing John Allen’s and my closest relationship – 5C1R through our Common Ancestors Thomas HOLADAY and Catherine HADLEY.

Figure 2: Composite of Relationship Chart generated in Marilyn Schunke's Legacy Family Tree. This chart shows the closest of the 11 ways in which Marilyn Ann Mullins and John Allen are related.

John and I are also 6th cousins (twice), 6th cousins once removed, 7th cousins (3 times), half-7th cousin, and 7th cousins once removed (3 times). Without the Relationship Calculator I never would have been able to imagine those relationships.

As you can see, the Relationship Chart provides an even better graphical representation of those relationships than the Relationship Calculator provides. The Relationship Calculator only provides the name of the direct-line ancestors. The Relationship Chart bolds the direct-line ancestor; and I can optionally view additional data, like spouse, birth, death, and marriage information. Legacy is very versatile, so there are several different variations on what can be displayed on the Relationship Chart.
I trust the above examples give you a glimpse into the power of the Relationship Calculator and its ultimate Relationship Charts. You can obviously see why it is one of my favorite tools within Legacy. I never would have figured out all these relationships on my own.

If I have piqued your interest in Legacy, you might be interested to know I lead the Legacy Family Tree Special Interest Group sponsored by Eastside Genealogical Society (EGS). Some time ago, long before I became the leader in February of this year, SKCGS’s Legacy group joined with EGS’s Legacy group. Our Mission Statement is “Help all attendees at our meetings gain a better understanding of the Legacy Family Tree genealogy software program and how it can enhance your genealogical research.” Much of our discussions are around best practices in genealogy research and then applying those practices to capture our family history properly in Legacy. We meet on the 3rd Thursday from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the LDS Church in Bellevue, 10675 Northeast 20th Street, Bellevue, Washington.

Come join us and learn what other powerful tools reside within Legacy! If you have questions, I can be reached at 425- 417-0908.


Marilyn Mullins Schunke
Leader, EGS Legacy Special Interest Group

Legacy Family Tree is a trademark of the Millennia Corporation.

Upcoming SKCGS Events:

Monday, September 17, Technology Users Group; "Privacy, Security, Strong Passwords & Password Programs" led by Janet Camarata.  1 - 3 pm Covington Library.