To add an adoptive parent or adopted child to a tree, add a parent or child to your tree, then follow the steps below to set the relationship as adopted. For help finding genetically-related family members, see Finding Biological Family.
Adding a child or parent to a tree
- Add an adoptive parent or adopted child to the tree, then click on the person you added. To add a second set of parents to someone who already has parents listed, just click on the person whose parents you're adding and go to step 2. If you're adding someone's sibling, at least one parent needs to be in the tree first. For example, if Bob and Bill are brothers, Bob needs to add their mother or father to the tree before Bob can add Bill as a child of that parent. If you don’t know the name of a parent, add the parent as “Unknown.”
- In the menu that appears after clicking on the person you added, click Profile.
- On their profile page, click Edit in the top-right corner and select Edit Relationships.
- Next to the appropriate name, click on the drop-down menu that says Biological and select Adopted. Skip this step if you already had one set of parents in your tree for this person. If that was all you wanted to do, you're done! To add another set of parents, continue to step 5.
- To add a second set of parents, click Add Alternate Mother or Add Alternate Father.
- Beneath the field that appears, click Add New Person.
- Enter the parent's name and any other information you'd like and click Save.
- You'll now see both mothers or both fathers listed.
- To change which one appears when looking at your tree, click Set as preferred. The parent who doesn't have the Set as preferred option is already set as preferred. Currently, only one mother and one father can be set preferred at a time.
- Parents are added as biological by default. To change this, click on the drop-down menu that says Biological and select Adopted.
Adding two names for an adopted person
If an adopted person's name was changed upon being adopted, you may wish to include both names in the tree. When both names are included, you can choose which name appears as primary and which appears as an alternate.
The name you make primary is the name you'll see when you look at your tree. The alternate name will be viewable in the adopted person's profile.
- In your tree, click on the person to whom you're adding a second name.
- In the card that appears, click Profile.
- Select the Facts tab on their profile page, click Add > Select an event type > Name.
- Enter the second name. If the name you're adding is the name you want to appear in your tree, check the box that says Preferred. If you want the other name to appear, leave the box unchecked.
- Click Add.
- From the Timeline column on their profile page, click the Filter menu and select Name and gender. When you do this, you should see both names appear in the Timeline column.
Adding information about an adoption to a tree
To add information about an adoption (such as date, place, and so forth) to the tree, enter the information in a person’s profile.
- From an adopted person’s profile page, select the Facts tab and click + Add in the Timeline column.
- From the drop-down menu that appears, select Adoption.
- Enter adoption details and click Add.
