FAQ - Message board - MyHeritage

The Attach/Detach feature should be used anytime you want to create a relationship between two people who are already in the family tree. For example, if cousins who are already in your family tree are married to each other, you can attach them as spouses without listing any of them in the tree twice.

So Attach, as opposed to Add, lets you draw a connecting line between two people who are already in the tree, and Detach removes that connection but without deleting any of the individuals. For each type of relationship there is a way to Attach or Detach. For husband and wife this feature is located in the "Spouses" menu. For children it is located in the "Children" menu. For parents it is located in the "Parents" menu.

There are multiple ways to reach these menus in order to invoke the Attach or Detach functionality. They are all the same so you can pick the one you find most convenient.

A) On the main menu, under Person -

File/Edit/View/PERSON/Family/Charts....

You can reach the Spouses, Children or Parents menus.

B) By clicking on the EDIT button on an individual's genealogy card

C) By clicking on the EDIT button in the "Family" section.

My recommendation for using the Attach/Detach feature is to access it through the MANAGE function (e.g. Manage Spouses or Manage Children). You can always do an Attach/Detach without using this screen, but in the MANAGE screen you can see and adjust ALL details at once, which is very helpful.

Example 1:

If A and B are second cousins who are married, and you want to add this relationship without adding A or B to the family tree (as they are already there), select A, reach the Manage Spouses menu for A, and then select Attach Spouse, and select B.

Example 2:

If you have two unrelated people in your tree, C and D, and you’ve discovered that C is the father of D, you can add this relationship by selecting C, then reach its Children menu, click ‘Attach Existing Child’ and select D.

Best Regards,

Esther / MyHeritage team