Adopted family members

[Gerald Wright]

I'm compiling a one surname family file (McCutch(an), (en), (eon), (in), I just discovered that Klinton Ivan McCutchin was actually adopted by a McCutchin family, his mother was Gusta Mae Siddens, father unknown, I would like to show that his descendants are an adopted McCutchin family member not a true McCutchin. Currently I'm entering the descendants as McCutchin (adopted). How has everyone else handled this situation?

[AE Palmer]

Re: Adopted family members

I'm compiling a one surname family file (McCutch(an), (en), (eon), (in), I just discovered that Klinton Ivan McCutchin was actually adopted by a McCutchin family, his mother was Gusta Mae Siddens, father unknown, I would like to show that his descendants are an adopted McCutchin family member not a true McCutchin. Currently I'm entering the descendants as McCutchin (adopted). How has everyone else handled this situation?

1) Start by creating an unknown husband to Gusta Mae Siddens
2) Add Klinton to THIS family using SIDDENS as his surname!
3) Make a record of his adoptive surname (I would put that info in the AKA Fact field)
4) Go to the adoptive parents record and add Klinton as a child
5) Be sure to use the Child Status to indicate that he was adopted.
Done. HTH.

[Bob White]

Re: Adopted family members

........Currently I'm entering the descendants as McCutchin (adopted). How has everyone else handled this situation?

Unless you are the only person that will see your work, I strongly advise against this practice of labeling an entire line as adopted. You may have insults thrown at you or relatives stop talking with you or...... You get my thinking?

Besides... adoption is just a legal term. Your Klinton was raised as a McCutchin and is just as McCutchin as anyone else in the family. His offspring are even more McCutchin and may not have any clue that he was adopted. And that is not unusual.

Otherwise, AE Palmer provides you with good thinking. Personally, my mother's first husband was my biological father. By the time I reached kindergarten, she had remarried and husband number two adopted me. I show myself as the son of the bio father but display my last name as the one I grew up with and still use 70+ years later -- the adoptive father's name. In the Notes field, I have information regarding the adoption.