Add a godfather-godmother

In many cultures children are watched over by a godfather and godmother. Here we explain how to add this relationship to a person.

Add the godfather/mother

We strongly suggest to add the godfather and godmother to the people in your database. To do this go to the person view, and add them. In many cases, the only information you have for a godparent is thier name, and a date on which they were certainly alive.

Add the relationship

The godfather/mother relationship can be added to a person in the associations tab of the person editor. So open the person that is the godchild, go to that tab, and add the godfather and godmother association by selecting godfather/mother and select the godfather/mother from the person list.

Add all people to the baptize event

Normaly you know from a godfather/mother relationship from a baptize record. So create with the person that is baptized a baptize event. This person has role 'Primary' in the event. Now go to the events tab of the godfather/mother person, and click the index button to select an existing event. Select the baptize event you just made, and set the role of the person to godfather/mother.

The event is now a shared event.

Alternative: don't create a person

Some people are averse to adding people to their family tree they only have a name of. First, allow us to point out why you should nevertheless make a person:

• GRAMPS supports this
• You might encounter the same person again in your research. Having him in the person view increases the likelyhood of you recognizing it is the same person as the one that appears as godfather.
• The Find Duplicates tool has more information to work with

If you nevertheless want to record the godfather/mother, without creating a person, use the attribute tab of the person instead. You can add to a person the attribute godfather/mother, with as value the name. You can do the same with the baptize event.