Comments on: Adoption: Redefining Family History

By: Sharon Bach

Sharon Bach — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:59:40 +0000

I am in total agreement with Donella. My mother was given to adoption as an infant, years later when she married my father they searched and found her birth mother. So, I have put her birth mother in the family tree, but there is no way for me to connect and acknowledge her adopted family to her. Why can’t you simply add another “parent” in the add relative selection and then add “adoptive” in the drop down menu that follows the selection? Is that too simplified?

By: Donella

Donella — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:51:37 +0000

this has been a bit of an issue with my tree (online) on MyHeritage. because there are NO options to show adoptions or adoption information on the tree. :-/ and I have MANY family members (including myself) that are adopted. whether it be a stepparent adoption, as it was for myself, or totally given up for adoption to an entirely different set of parents. I have both in my tree (and my husband’s side as well) and no way to show that, other than just writing both names in the name section ie, Jane Smith (birth) Jones (adoptive). :-/ and then I put the tree information for their bio family. which totally leaves out their adoptive family. which may have been much more important to them. :-/ but, in the end, I am a GENEalogist. emphasis on “genes”. I put the adoptive family info in “notes” or “comments”. but honestly… I would LOVE a way to show BOTH families!

By: Lynn Gasbarino

Lynn Gasbarino — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:26:39 +0000

I was born in Ontario, Canada, and also adopted. My biological brother was not adopted. I was 4 years old at adoption time, and had memories of a family, including my brother. I re-met my brother in the mid-1970’s, and from there, met my biological mother. She wasn’t much on giving me any information, so after my dear adoptive mother died in 1996, I went onto Ancestry.com and entered what I knew. I have found my 3 half sisters in England, however, I was too late – they had all passed away. But I have their children, and now I find myself in the position of matriarch of this very large and loving family. I have also done the complete Ancestry of my adoptive parents, and my cousins from that family have taken my biological cousins into their hearts. So for me, being adopted did not hinder me from finding blood relatives.