Q: What information should I show for a Person's Children?
A: Their name, year of birth and place of birth.
It is important to remember that the Narrative section of a Person page should tell the life story of the subject of that Person page. When listing the subject's children, it is easy to get carried away. It is generally appropriate to show just the full (birth) name, the year of birth and place of birth for each child. The place of birth of successive children is often the only hint as to when a family relocated during the decade between two censuses and is therefore a part of the Subject's narrative.When and where a child who survived to adulthood died is NOT part of the life story of their parent, which is the purpose of the Narrative section on a Person Page. It is likely the adult child died after the parent. Even if they died within their parent's lifetime, they may well have moved away from the family. If they remained locally, they may have been estranged from their parent. The information about the child's death belongs exclusively on the Person Page for that child.
By only having that date of death on the child's Person page we avoid duplication, with the danger that the two will get out of step. It is also an unnecessary duplication since when a wiki link is added pointing to the child's page, then on mousing over the link the page Description becomes visible and that page Description contains that information anyway (which is another reason why the page Descriptions are so important).
There are two significant exceptions when that duplication doesn't occur, so including additional information is acceptable.
- Firstly, if a child dies prior to adulthood (say the age of 15, give or take a bit) then they are unlikely to have their own person page added to TRP. In this case additionally including the child's date and place of death is acceptable.
- Secondly, for a Reeves daughter without their own Person page. Whilst it is perfectly acceptable to create a Person page for the daughters, as a one name study, we tend to create such Person pages less often. If a Person page has not been created for a daughter who marries, then it is permissible to indicate their spouse's name (if known, so that a death can more easily be found). If the daughter remains single, then it is permissible to show their date of death (if known).