How to handle the tree for an adopted person
My mother was adopted at age 6. I currently have her linked to her adoptive parents. I have since located records for her birth mother and father. Is it possible to have her linked into the two different family trees?
Best Answers
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Thank you Scott. I'm new to this site and want to make records about my extended family more accurate.
Paul
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If you find there are a bunch of half siblings and want to keep them straight because birth mom and birth dad never married and never had other children together, then separate birth parents out by their separate marriages to others. I have an adopted person linked to 3 sets of parents. Birth mom and her husband, are linked to the adopted child with relationships of biological and step. This allows adopted child to be listed and visible among the maternal half siblings. Then I have birth dad and his wife linked to the adopted child, again with relationships of biological and step. This allows the adopted child to be listed and visible among the paternal half siblings. Finally, the adopted child is linked to the adoptive parents with the relationship of adopted, and allows the adopted child to be listed among the adoptive siblings that the child grew up with.
The great thing about this is the road map. Adopted child is actually a grandparent now, and the adult children of adopted child have long told me they don't understand their birth family. They hear names, but even adopted child was pleased to see it all separated in order. Several in that family have FS accounts and have built records for the living in order to see this combo of living and deceased in the larger family just to have that road map. I have collaborated with birth relatives on both the maternal side and the paternal side with family history matters.
There are those who have told me this is over kill, but for the adopted person looking to understand a birth family they do not know very well, this is golden.
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Answers
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Take a look at this Knowledge Article. You can have multiple relationships for the same child.
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Thank you Gail for that very insightful perspective. My mother was one of 9 children when her birth mother passed away. All the kids were scattered and adopted by different families. Now almost 90 years later, I still know very little about her birth family. I hope to be able to put the pieces together for that family tree as well.
Paul
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I had the honor of speaking with adopted child's birth mother before the lady passed, and she was very willing to speak about all her siblings and her children so I could get it right on the tree. As the family history bug has infected me quite deeply, I find this kind of conversation with anyone fascinating, but it was such a privilege for me to get the back story of adopted child. I wish we had taped it. Of course, adopted child was in the conversation as well, but I was the one asking most of the questions. I had an even more in-depth conversation with the husband of a paternal half-sister of adopted child. He spent quite a while (several hours) telling me about the culture and history of the rural area adopted child was from. He also sent me a spreadsheet of all the children, and the direct lineages he has researched so far, which probably sounds quite funny, but when 2 genealogists get together, that is the kind of thing that happens. Since he is very much alive, I'm sure we will talk again.
@PEKnapp If there is anyone you can contact who has knowledge of your mother's family, I recommend a good conversation. It sounds like you have quite a mystery to solve! Good luck!
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