Genealogy Chat

How do i enter an adopted child on the Gc site? I know his real father who died when he was 3 and then he was brought up by his birth mother and his stepfather and changed his name by deedpoll to that of his new father. Is there anyway to show this or do you just enter it in the notes?? KIM

Hi Kim, I think the best way is just to attach the child to the mother and then if both husbands are entered you should be able to then choose which one to put the child to. In the notes you should clearly state the relationship with the other father. In my humble opinion, you should put the birth father as the childs father as he is the gene connecting link. If the child then get married and has children of his own, they can be given the new surname he has adopted and with the notes in his entry it should all tie up. Janet

If you are also keeping an off-line record as well as on the GC site, the Legacy programme allows for multiple parents, so that you can link adopted/step parents in your tree. I don't know how the GC website would handle it if you then uploaded the tree though.

That does make sense,even though to the children they share a name with which is not "Their" biological one so even though there is a familylink and history, genetically they are unconnected. I never thought about any of this until I started my tree.... interesting...........KIM