New Individual Relationships to Create for Marriages

Marriages can create new individual relationships, such as "step-" and "-in-law" familial relationships. You can configure the program to automatically create these relationships for a spouse when a user adds a spousal relationship, based on the spouse's gender and the constituent's existing relationships. For example, the program can create a stepparent relationship for a constituent when the spouse has a child.

The program may also create reciprocal relationships based the individual relationships it creates for a spouse. For example, if the program creates a Stepfather relationship for a constituent because the spouse has a daughter, the program may also create the reciprocal relationship of Stepdaughter.

Warning: If an existing reciprocal pattern does not exist for a relationship, the program does not automatically create the new relationships. For example, you can configure the program to create a relationship of Stepfather for male constituents when the spouse has a daughter. But if you do not configure a reciprocal relationship for Stepfather, such as Stepdaughter, the program cannot determine the relationship for the daughter and does not create a new relationship between the constituent and the spouse’s daughter. As you configure relationships for married constituents, we recommend you ensure the pattern for a reciprocal relationship exists between two individuals. Otherwise, you can manually enter the first occurrence of the relationship to establish the pattern for future relationships. For information about how to configure reciprocal relationships, see Relationship Types on page 1.

1. From Constituents, select Life changes under Configuration. The Life Changes page appears.

2. Select the Marriage tab.

3. Under New individual to create for marriages, select Add on the action bar. The Add new spouse relationship screen appears.

4. In the For existing relationships on one spouse grid, select the individual relationships on a constituent for which to create a new relationship for the spouse. For example, to create a relationship of Stepfather, select child relationships such as Son and Daughter.

5. In the A new spouse with gender field, select the gender on which to base the new relationship. For example, to create a new relationship applicable to a male spouse, select Male. To create a relationship applicable to either gender, select Any.

6. In the Becomes the field, select the relationship type to apply to the spouse based on the selected types of constituent relationships. For example, create Stepfather relationships between the spouse and the constituent's children, select Stepfather.

7. To view a diagram that explains the effect of your selections, select What do my choices mean?.

8. Select Save. You return to the Manage Life Changes page.