Adoption and the Family Tree
I posted this in the general section, and someone suggested I post it here.
I am constructing a family tree for a friend, and an emotional issue has come up. I have a question about genealogical procedure.
A & B are sisters. A dies leaving several children who are adopted by B. These children grow up and have children of their own, using their legal, adopted surnames.
How is this represented in the tree?
If the line continues in both places, it's duplication and inefficient. If the line continues down from the natural parents, it prefers blood ties to legal relationships and present reality; after all, the adopted grandparents are the only grandparents the children of the adopted children know.
It seems to me that the logical thing to do is to list the adopted children under their natural parents with a note saying that the line continues in another place in the tree, then put the continuations under the adoptive parents.
However, when I did this and showed it to my friend, she went ballistic. She is one of A's children, and she feels -- perhaps rightly -- that no one else in her family honors her natural mother's memory.
If I were doing this project for my friend alone, I would not hesitate to put the lines where she wants them; but I'm not. I'm doing it for posterity. So, what's the right answer? My friend has agreed to accept proper genealogical procedure.
Thanks,
Tom
More Replies:
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Re: Adoption and the Family Tree
Tom Terrific 2/04/09
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Re: Adoption and the Family Tree
sandra ferguson 2/05/09
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Re: Adoption and the Family Tree
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Re: Adoption and the Family Tree
sandra ferguson 2/04/09
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Re: Adoption and the Family Tree
Mary Knudson 2/02/09
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Re: Adoption and the Family Tree
JoAnne Cook 2/01/09