Adoption and the Family Tree.

[Jo Harding]

Hello Rootschatters,

I apologise if this question has been raised before but I haven't been able to find it on this site.

How do you treat people who have been adopted on your family tree please? By this I mean which name do you show for them on the tree? I have entered some of my relatives who were adopted in their birth names but noticed that others have put them under their adopted names on their trees. Which is the correct treatment?

Jo.

[lizdb]

Your research - your tree - so your choice!

[Gillg]

Not sure that this is the "correct" method, but I enter mine under the names given to them by the family which adopted them and add a note explaining that they were adopted, giving the names of their birth parents if known and their birth names.

[KGarrad]

Most FH software allows you to do both!

Ancestry, for example, allows you to identify father, alternative father, mother and alternative mother.
With each of these you can identify them as Biological, Adopted, Step, Foster, Related, Guardian, Unknown or Other.

Under Facts, you can add Adoption details as well as Name.
With a name you can select which name is the Preferred.

[bibliotaphist]

Most FH software allows you to do both!

Ancestry, for example, allows you to identify father, alternative father, mother and alternative mother.
With each of these you can identify them as Biological, Adopted, Step, Foster, Related, Guardian, Unknown or Other.

Under Facts, you can add Adoption details as well as Name.
With a name you can select which name is the Preferred.

Seconded, I do exactly this using RootsMagic and GRAMPS software - I add two sets of parents to the person, marked as biological/adopted/step/unknown as appropriate. I then add Alternate Name, Birth and Adoption facts to the individual as required.

I also record the primary/preferred name as BirthForename(s) BirthSurname a.k.a. AdoptedName(s), using the name 'suffix' field for the a.k.a. bit.

[Kiltpin]

Every person in my tree is by name at birth. Most of my (many) cousins have had multiple marriages - one was widowed three times. It just makes life so much easier.

Regards

Chas

[iolaus]

It would depend on whether they were adopted in or out of the family.

My grandmother had a daughter who was adopted in the 1920s, who I managed to identify her adopted parents and death - she's in my tree under her birth name - with a note as to who adopted her and her adopted name.  Same as my husband's great grandmother's twin sister

With my great grandparents adopted daughter she's in there under her adopted name with a note (she uses her birth name as a middle name on her marriage certificate so thats how I have her) - there is a part of me though that wonders if she actually was my great grandfather's daughter

[Jo Harding]

Thank you for the advice and suggestions.

This is proving a particular problem on one line where numerous adoptions occurred in the past. It has been confusing when comparing the different family trees.

Jo