I am new at this. Still trying to design my database. Right now, I am trying
to get my tables right so that I can enter data. We are a school and need to
send mail to both the primary and secondary families.

If there were no broken families, I would have a family table with the
fields of family id, family last name. And then a family members table with
the fields of family member and position (dad, mom, daughter, son, etc.)--and
other fields such as phone, etc.

How do I design my tables to accommodate families with different last names,
stepparents, etc.? Also, there are children resulting from a remarriage that
are not part of the original family at all.

At this point, I don't have a table structure. I am just trying to figure
out what tables I need to make. Sorry I was unclear. Accommodating all these
family connections are confusing to me!

"Jeff Boyce" wrote:

We aren't there. We can't see your table structure.

When you say "they all need to get mail", how are you recording that fact
now? Are you using the "family members table" todetermine who gets mail?
If so, consider this alternative ...

trelWhoGetWhichMail
FamilyMemberID
MailID
...

With a "junction" table like this, you can list as many FamilyMembers as you
need to, plus which piece of Mail they are to receive. Notice that there is
NO use of FamilyID.

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Access MVP

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"Serendipity" wrote in message
...
Using Access 2003. I have a tblFamilies and a tblFamilyMembers. What do I
do
when I have a "family" where the Dad lives at a different address and is
remarried and the Mom is remarried meaning that there is a stepdad and a
stepmom but they all need to get mail? I could just put them all in the
family members table with a fldrole where I put stepmom, stepdad, etc.,
but
that would necessitate putting the addresses in the tblfamilymembers which
would not be correct.

Thanks for your help.


.