What is a stepparent?
Short answerA stepparent is the spouse or partner of your parent who is not your birth or adoptive parent. Your mother’s husband is your stepfather; you are his stepson or stepdaughter. Stepparents are family by marriage or partnership. If a stepparent adopts you, they become your adoptive parent instead.
Stepparent or adoptive parent?
Adoption changes the legal relationship: an adoptive parent is a parent in every legal sense, and Family Trees counts adoptive links as part of the bloodline for kinship. A stepparent who has not adopted stays a stepparent. You can record either: every parent link in the app is birth, adoptive, step or foster.
Step-grandparents
Your stepparent’s parents are your step-grandparents, and your grandparent’s new spouse is a step-grandparent too.
How Family Trees finds stepparents
Someone is your stepparent in the app if you are linked to them directly as their stepchild, or if they are the current partner of one of your parents and not your parent themselves. Former partners after a recorded divorce aren’t counted.
Let Family Trees name it for you
Every parent link in Family Trees is birth, adoptive, step or foster, and every couple is married, partners, separated or divorced. From that, the app names each relative in plain words on their page and under How are they related?, including half, step, foster and in-law relations. It’s free for up to 100 people.
Questions
Is a stepparent a legal parent?
Not on their own. A stepparent becomes a legal parent through adoption, where the law allows it. Rules vary by country and state, so check local guidance for anything legal.
What do I call my stepparent’s parents?
They are your step-grandparents: step-grandmother and step-grandfather.
Can someone have more than one stepparent?
Yes. If both of your parents have new partners, you can have a stepmother and a stepfather at the same time.