Family Connections, Family Tree & Households

In real church life, family trees and living arrangements rarely fit inside a single “family” box. Adult children grow up and form their own homes while remaining connected to their parents in the congregation; grandparents sometimes bring their grandchildren to Sunday school even when the children’s parents do not attend; and children in blended families may split their weeks between two homes.

To reflect your congregation accurately without forcing workarounds, Parsonage separates Family connections and Households on every person’s Family & groups tab:

• Family connections record multi-generation parent, child, and partner relationships across your congregation—regardless of who lives at which address. These links build the interactive multi-generation family tree and power wedding anniversary suggestions in the Sunday bulletin.
• Households represent the people who live or attend church together as a practical unit (with Adult and Child roles), without implying biological or legal parentage. Because households are flexible, a grandmother and granddaughter who attend together can share a household without skipping a generation in the family tree, and a child can belong to more than one household when needed.

Open any person in the People directory and switch to the Family & groups tab to view or update their Family connections card.

Adding a partner, parent, or child

1. 1

   Choose the relationship direction

   In the Family connections card, click Add partner, Add parent, or Add child.

2. 2

   Pick an existing person or create someone new in one step

   Choose Link existing person to search for someone already in your directory, or select Create new person to enter their First name, Last name, and optional Date of birth right inside the form—adding them to your church directory and linking the relationship at the same time.

3. 3

   Select a relationship type and save

   Pick the relationship label that fits best, then click Link partner/parent/child (or Create and link partner/parent/child). Parsonage automatically prevents impossible ancestry cycles (such as accidentally linking someone as their own ancestor).

Parent, child, and partner labels

• Parent and child relationship types: Choose Parent (the general default), Biological, Adoptive, Step, Foster, or Guardian.
• Partner relationship types: Choose Married, In a relationship, or Partner.
• Wedding dates & bulletin anniversaries: When a couple’s relationship is set to Married, click the pencil button next to their partner row to record or update an optional Wedding date (optional). Married couples with a recorded wedding date automatically appear in the Sunday bulletin editor’s upcoming anniversary suggestions (as long as neither spouse is marked deceased).

Switching between List view and the interactive Tree view

Whenever a person has at least one family connection, a List / Tree toggle appears in the top-right corner of the Family connections card (and remembers your choice as you move from person to person during your session):

• List view: Shows direct partners, parents, and children with their relationship labels and wedding dates, plus quick buttons to edit a partner relationship or unlink a connection.
• Tree view: Draws a multi-generation diagram centered on the person you are viewing—including their ancestors (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents), siblings, partners, partner relatives, and descendants (children, grandchildren, and beyond) ordered by birth date. Click any relative’s card in the tree (or in the list) to jump straight to their profile and refocus the family tree around them.

The Households card sits at the top of the Family & groups tab and shows every household the person belongs to, along with each member’s role (Adult or Child).

Creating, joining, and managing households

1. 1

   Create a new household or join an existing one

   Click Create household (or New household if the person already belongs to one) to start a household—pre-filled with “[Last name] household”—and choose the person’s role. Or click Join household to search existing households by name or member names and add this person to one.

2. 2

   Add other household members and set Adult or Child roles

   Inside any household card, click Add member to pick another person from your directory. Every member has either the Adult or Child role—when a person’s birth date shows they are under 18, Parsonage automatically defaults their role to Child. You can change anyone’s role at any time using the role dropdown on their row.

3. 3

   Rename a household or remove members

   Click the pencil button in a household’s header to rename it, or click the remove member button on any row to take someone out of that household. Removing a member never deletes them from your People directory. If you remove the very last member of a household, Parsonage lets you know that the empty household (and any notes attached to it) will be removed while the person stays in your directory.

Shared household Notes and Tasks

Households also make pastoral care and office follow-up easier when you are caring for a whole home at once:

• Household notes: When an owner or administrator writes a note on a person’s Notes tab, they can attach it to one of that person’s households (or to both the person and the household). Household notes automatically appear on the Notes tab—and in Pinned notes on the Overview tab if pinned—of every member of that household, labeled with the household’s name.
• Household tasks: Tasks created for one of a person’s households appear on the Tasks tab and in Open tasks for every member of that household, as well as in the church-wide Tasks workspace.

All signed-in members of your church can browse family connections, the interactive family tree, and households, while editing is limited to church owners and administrators:

Owner

Can view and edit all family connections, partner relationships, wedding dates, and households; can create new directory people directly from the family link form; and can view and write shared household Notes and Tasks.

Admin

Same access as Owner: full ability to view and edit family connections, wedding dates, and households, create relatives in one step, and manage shared household Notes and Tasks.

Member

Read-only access to both List and Tree views of family connections and to household memberships and roles. Can view and manage Tasks on household members, but cannot add, edit, or unlink family connections or households and cannot view household Notes.