Re: [Gramps-users] Re : Is there a particular reason why "Divorce" isn't included as a relationship type?

[Enno B. <enn...@gm...>]

Hello John,

The simplest answer is that status and type are different things, and a 
relationship type refers to the sort of relationship that people once 
had. Divorce as an event is not a relationship, but rather the end of 
it, and divorced is a status, not a type.

When you take the definitions like this, and software is always based on 
formal definitions, a relation type 'married' as opposed to other types, 
does not end with a divorce. A divorce creates a new status called 
'divorced' but that does not not mean that the relationship type itself 
is changed.

I set the relationship between my parents and most other couples in my 
tree to married, because that's what they were. Divorces, separations, 
or deaths, don't change the relationship types that once were.

Note that this is how software models the world, and changing the model 
may create inconsistencies, so in general such changes need to be 
avoided. There is a formal meaning that you may not agree to, but that 
doesn't change the intended meaning itself.

The model is biased, because the people that created it were biased, 
meaning that they had their own interpretations of the meaning of 
marriage, which is quite simplistic, I think, but exists nevertheless. 
We often have to live with that, because the consequences of changing 
meaning afterwards are too high.

regards,

Enno