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Earlier this week one of my brothers discovered two chests full of family history from my dad’s side of the family. They’ve been stored up in the loft of my dad’s garage for decades and I am so glad my brother unearthed them and is now starting to preserve the letters, photos and memorabilia that he found. So last night he was over with his girlfriend and they were talking about doing a little family genealogy and creating a family tree. Well, adoptive mom radar went up and here I am today with a post for you about family trees for the adoptive family.
I really love this family tree, with the birth parents and child’s birth country at the roots, the child at the trunk and the adoptive family at the branches; but it would only work for a tree that is child-centered. If the tree is meant to encompass many generations before that child, how do you include their birth parents? Or should the child just be listed as your child without any reference to their pre-adoption life? The options are endless, and I realize that older children will have their own preference and level of comfort with family tree type projects. Family trees can become even more complicated for a child who has no information about their birthparents, and that’s something parents will need to figure out how to handle with their child. For now, Ella has no idea that she had a family before us, but I want to be as prepared as I can be for when she faces assignments like this in the future.
I feel like when it comes time for Ella to make her own family tree, I will be able to offer her a good set of options to help her complete it however she wishes. But what about the big ol’ genealogy based family tree? Would she feel less a member of the family if she has extra lines and boxes attached to hers? Or would she be disappointed if her birthparents were not acknowledged? I certainly don’t have all (or any!) of the answers and am just rolling all of this around in my head. Does anyone have any advice or ideas on building a family tree that is not child centered? If you have created one, what/who did you include in it?
More Reading:
Family Tree Assignments – What’s the Big Deal?
Our Family Tree, Such as it is
Challenges That Come Up During School
