diff --git a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchBulkDeleter.java b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchBulkDeleter.java
index 77a3fa9add1..788dbfc58b6 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchBulkDeleter.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchBulkDeleter.java
@@ -118,10 +118,6 @@ public class ElasticsearchBulkDeleter implements JobDataDeleter {
                 .setIndex(JobResultsPersister.getJobIndexName(jobId))
                 .setType(hit.getType())
                 .setId(hit.getId());
-        SearchHitField parentField = hit.field(ElasticsearchMappings.PARENT);
-        if (parentField != null) {
-            deleteRequest.setParent(parentField.getValue().toString());
-        }
         bulkRequestBuilder.add(deleteRequest);
     }
 
diff --git a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchJobProvider.java b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchJobProvider.java
index e5c39c2508c..4429135fb01 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchJobProvider.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchJobProvider.java
@@ -715,7 +715,7 @@ public class ElasticsearchJobProvider implements JobProvider
 
 
     /**
-     * The returned records have the parent bucket id set.
+     * The returned records have their id set.
      */
     private QueryPage<AnomalyRecord> records(String jobId, int from, int size,
             QueryBuilder recordFilter, FieldSortBuilder sb, List<String> secondarySort,
@@ -761,7 +761,7 @@ public class ElasticsearchJobProvider implements JobProvider
             }
             AnomalyRecord record = AnomalyRecord.PARSER.apply(parser, () -> parseFieldMatcher);
 
-            // set the ID and parent ID
+            // set the ID
             record.setId(hit.getId());
             results.add(record);
         }
diff --git a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchMappings.java b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchMappings.java
index a080e81ffc4..b90cad72547 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchMappings.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchMappings.java
@@ -61,7 +61,6 @@ public class ElasticsearchMappings {
     static final String INCLUDE_IN_ALL = "include_in_all";
     static final String NESTED = "nested";
     static final String COPY_TO = "copy_to";
-    static final String PARENT = "_parent";
     static final String PROPERTIES = "properties";
     static final String TYPE = "type";
     static final String DYNAMIC = "dynamic";
@@ -370,8 +369,6 @@ public class ElasticsearchMappings {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Records have a _parent mapping to a {@linkplain org.elasticsearch.xpack.prelert.job.results.Bucket}.
-     *
      * @param termFieldNames Optionally, other field names to include in the
      *                       mappings.  Pass <code>null</code> if not required.
      */
diff --git a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/JobResultsPersister.java b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/JobResultsPersister.java
index ca9208a05dc..4341bb63704 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/JobResultsPersister.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/JobResultsPersister.java
@@ -46,9 +46,7 @@ import static org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory.jsonBuilder;
  * records. The anomaly score of the bucket may not match the summed score of
  * all the records as all the records may not have been outputted for the
  * bucket.
- * <h2>Anomaly Record</h2> In Elasticsearch records have a parent &lt;-&lt;
- * child relationship with buckets and should only exist is relation to a parent
- * bucket. Each record was generated by a detector which can be identified via
+ * <h2>Anomaly Record</h2> Each record was generated by a detector which can be identified via
  * the detectorIndex field.
  * <h2>Detector</h2> The Job has a fixed number of detectors but there may not
  * be output for every detector in each bucket. <br>
diff --git a/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchJobProviderTests.java b/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchJobProviderTests.java
index 465974d31fb..4ae6b9a6969 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchJobProviderTests.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchJobProviderTests.java
@@ -1020,7 +1020,6 @@ public class ElasticsearchJobProviderTests extends ESTestCase {
 
         for (Map<String, Object> map : source) {
             SearchHit hit = mock(SearchHit.class);
-            // remove the _parent from the field we use for _source
             Map<String, Object> _source = new HashMap<>(map);
             when(hit.getSourceRef()).thenReturn(XContentFactory.jsonBuilder().map(_source).bytes());
             when(hit.getId()).thenReturn(String.valueOf(map.hashCode()));
diff --git a/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchMappingsTests.java b/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchMappingsTests.java
index 152bc5ab731..41356b9b783 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchMappingsTests.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/ElasticsearchMappingsTests.java
@@ -80,7 +80,6 @@ public class ElasticsearchMappingsTests extends ESTestCase {
         overridden.add(ElasticsearchMappings.INDEX);
         overridden.add(ElasticsearchMappings.NESTED);
         overridden.add(ElasticsearchMappings.NO);
-        overridden.add(ElasticsearchMappings.PARENT);
         overridden.add(ElasticsearchMappings.PROPERTIES);
         overridden.add(ElasticsearchMappings.TYPE);
         overridden.add(ElasticsearchMappings.WHITESPACE);
diff --git a/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/MockClientBuilder.java b/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/MockClientBuilder.java
index d1c2f47fe8c..9f932f1580e 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/MockClientBuilder.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/prelert/job/persistence/MockClientBuilder.java
@@ -296,7 +296,6 @@ public class MockClientBuilder {
 
         when(client.prepareIndex(eq(index), any(), any())).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.setSource(eq(source))).thenReturn(builder);
-        when(builder.setParent(any(String.class))).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.setRefreshPolicy(eq(RefreshPolicy.IMMEDIATE))).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.execute()).thenReturn(actionFuture);
         when(actionFuture.actionGet()).thenReturn(mock(IndexResponse.class));
@@ -311,7 +310,6 @@ public class MockClientBuilder {
         when(client.prepareIndex(eq(index), any(), any())).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.setSource(getSource.capture())).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.setRefreshPolicy(eq(RefreshPolicy.IMMEDIATE))).thenReturn(builder);
-        when(builder.setParent(any(String.class))).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.execute()).thenReturn(actionFuture);
         when(actionFuture.actionGet()).thenReturn(mock(IndexResponse.class));
         return this;
@@ -327,7 +325,6 @@ public class MockClientBuilder {
         when(client.prepareIndex(eq(index), eq(type))).thenReturn(builder);
         when(client.prepareIndex(eq(index), eq(type), any(String.class))).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.setSource(getSource.capture())).thenReturn(builder);
-        when(builder.setParent(any(String.class))).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.setRefreshPolicy(eq(RefreshPolicy.IMMEDIATE))).thenReturn(builder);
         when(builder.execute()).thenReturn(actionFuture);
         when(actionFuture.actionGet()).thenReturn(response);