Contact Relationships can be created/edited from the Relationships sub page of an open Contact record or from the Contact Relationships page in the Lookup Values section.

When a user creates a relationship from a one person to another, the database will automatically create the reciprocal relationship (if a reciprocal relationship is set in the Relationship record). For example, for every "Child of" Relationship record there should be a matching "Parent of" record.  If an edit is made, the system will update the reciprocal record appropriately. 

If a relationship ends, the Contact Relationship should be end dated to retain a history of the previous relationship.

Here are a few facts about relationships in MinistryPlatform:

• Relationships should be gender neutral.  The words "Brother of" and "Sister of" are not used.  Instead, "Sibling of" is used.  By looking at the gender of the Contact the correct gender-specific word can be inferred.
• Relationships can be defined for people within and outside of a primary household/family.
• Your church can add new Relationship types in the MinistryPlatform Setup Area under System Lookups > Relationships.
• The Deceased Person tool can add historical relationships when removing a deceased person from a primary family.
• The Combine Contacts tool can add/edit a relationship between two Contacts who, upon review, are determined not to be duplicate records. This will help ensure they no longer appear to be duplicates.

 
The following list defines the fields on the Contact Relationship page:

• Contact: The first Contact in the relationship
• Relationship: The type of relationship the two Contacts have in common
• Related: The second Contact in the relationship 
• Start Date: The date the relationship began or was entered into the system
• End Date: The date the relationship ended
• Notes:
• Triggered By: This is a read-only field which the system uses to trigger updates on the reciprocal record when changes are made.

Note: the Contact Relationship has been recorded correctly when the relationship can be "read" down the fields. For instance Jane Dow (Contact) is the Parent of (Relationship) Jimmy Dow (Related).