Which in-laws get to stay in our trees?

[coughlinja]

Is there any reason to have in-laws in your family tree, other than the spouses of descendants? I was looking at a corner of my tree, and I found the Paternal Grandfather of the Husband of a 1st cousin 2x removed. Along with the Paternal Grandfather came a few of his relatives who are not related to me. Is there any reason to keep anyone beyond spouses of direct descendants?

[jim1]

As it's a family tree I don't see the point in having anyone not remotely related.

[3sillydogs]

I only keep spouses and direct lines as I have found, especially when there were many children, that  to list all their spouses etc makes the tree very cumbersome and confusing.  I list the kids but no other info.

[lizdb]

It is your family, your research, your tree. You can put who you want in it. If you want to record in-laws, then do it. If you don't want to, then don't.
I cant quite understand how you have people appearing in your tree that are not related to you.

[coughlinja]

Okay, these make sense. I've been wondering how the non relatives ended up in my tree. Slipped in on a Census I did not pay enough attention to?

[StevieSteve]

I cant quite understand how you have people appearing in your tree that are not related to you.

If you added census info for the pre-marriage years of the spouse the rest of the family would be added to the tree (I'm assuming this is on Ancestry)

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For the OP

Any one of those in-laws might have left something in a will to your family that changed their lives. They may have emigrated to Australia and your family followed them or they might just be genuinely interesting in their own right.

[Rosinish]

I do have parents of "anyone" married "into" my family (although not always related to me) but only for reference of who the incomer was as it is easier & quicker than typing up info. in the "notes" section but I don't include their siblings or anyone else who isn't a relative.

It will help future generations (of their descendants) who may follow my genealogy interest.

Annie

ADDED......I have FTM i.e. if I print an "all-in-one" tree I just copy my tree & delete the people not related to me (those in-laws).

I find it a handy tool having them in the tree for research though as others may be descended from the same couple & info. can be exchanged for my own line.

[3sillydogs]

I have found they can also come from matches found in other online trees.  I have had it happen and then had to go and take them all out.  So I  am careful and vet matches before adding them

[Karytay]

You can do what ever you like. But I do not add them as a new person on my tree. Ancestry.com tree as a place for custom facts and I have add in-laws of spouses and cousins as part of there fact list so they do not effect any other part of my tree. So this way one has a record of them so you know how everything fits. Some of the in-laws were close friends before they became in-laws, so by doing this I can put an explanation in explaining this which makes it clear how the relationship started.