Adoption in a family tree
Short answerAn adopted person belongs in their adoptive family tree as a full child of their adoptive parents. If they want birth parents shown too, link the child to both sets of parents and mark each link as adoptive or birth. Genealogy software records this per parent, and GEDCOM files carry it, so the distinction survives when you move the tree.
Two families, one person
An adoptee has an adoptive family and a birth family. A tree can show either or both:
- Adoptive family only: the child is linked to the adoptive parents like any other child. This is the most common choice in a family’s own tree.
- Both families: the child is linked to adoptive and birth parents, each link labeled. Useful for medical history or reunions, and only with the adoptee’s agreement.
- A separate tree for the birth family, kept private.
Drawing it
Use a solid line to adoptive parents, as you would for any child. If birth parents appear, connect them with a different style, such as a dashed line, and add a short legend. Some families add a note with the adoption date; others don’t. Either is fine.
How genealogy files record adoption
GEDCOM, the standard file format for family trees, records how a child relates to each family with a pedigree value (PEDI) such as birth, adopted or foster, and some programs (Ancestry, Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic) add their own _FREL and _MREL tags for the father’s and mother’s link. An adoption itself can be recorded as an event (ADOP). Read more in what is GEDCOM.
Privacy and consent
Adoption records are often sealed or restricted, and birth parents may not know they are being researched. Keep living birth relatives private, ask the adoptee before adding birth family to a shared tree, and don’t contact birth relatives on someone else’s behalf without their agreement.
Doing this in Family Trees
In Family Trees, each parent link can be marked birth, adoptive, step or foster. Adoptive links count as family for relationships, so the relationship calculator calls an adoptive parent’s brother an uncle, and the tree draws the child with their adoptive family. When you import a GEDCOM file, adoption, step and foster links from PEDI, _FREL and _MREL are kept. See stepfamilies, adoption and fostering.
Questions
Should adopted children be on the family tree?
Yes. An adopted child is a full member of the adoptive family and belongs on its tree like any other child. Whether birth parents also appear is the adoptee’s choice.
How do you show birth parents and adoptive parents on one tree?
Link the child to both couples and mark each link: adoptive and birth. Use a different line style, such as dashed for the birth parents, and add a short legend.
Does GEDCOM support adoption?
Yes. GEDCOM records a child’s link to each family with a pedigree value such as adopted, birth or foster, and an adoption can be recorded as an ADOP event.
Questions? Email support@familytreesapp.com and a person will reply.