So:
- one family can have multiple persons, and
- one person can belong in multiple families.
That's a classic many-to-many relation.

To resolve it, you need 3 tables:
a) a table of persons
b) a table of families
c) a table defining which persons belong in which families.

The 3rd table will have fields like this:
- FamilyID relates to one of your families
- PersonID relates to one of your persons.
So, if Sally belongs in 2 families, she will have 2 entries in this table.

I would think that the personal names (first name and surname) belong in the
person table, but the address fields belong in the family table. The 3rd
table might also have a field to describe the person's role in the family
(e.g. parent, child, boarder, ...)

That should cope with the school situation you describe. If you want a more
comprehensive approach, see:
People in households and companies - Modeling human relationships
at:
http://allenbrowne.com/AppHuman.html

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.


"Serendipity" wrote in message
...
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

--
Disclaimer: This author may have received products and services mentioned
in this post. Mention and/or description of a product or service herein
does not constitute endorsement thereof.

Any code or pseudocode included in this post is offered "as is", with no
guarantee as to suitability.

You can thank the FTC of the USA for making this disclaimer
possible/necessary.


"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.


.