FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS-L Archives

Archiver > FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS > 1997-09 > 0873122599


From: Paul R. Smith< >
Subject: Re: Step Children
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 1997 09:03:19 -0500


On Mon, 01 Sep 1997 00:56:15 -0400 "Sharon M. Jones" <>
writes:

> In this day and age with divorce on an uprise step
>children are becoming more and more prevalant. I would never think of
>leaving my step children out of my genealogical search just as I
>wouldn't leave out the biological facts. This is just my personal
opinion.

Step children certainly shouldn't be left out. AAMOF, I have several
Foster children whose ancestry I have attempted to recreate (if that's
the proper usage of the word here <G>.) OTOH, I think we need to
maintain our perspective on the relationships. While we love, dote over,
care for, sacrifice for, etc. our Step and Foster (and adopted) children,
they are not, whether we like it or not, related to us and therefore
don't 'fit' into our family genealogy. They have their own - why try to
change that?

Rather than trying to make non-relatives fit into your own genealogy, why
not prepare a separate genealogy for the child and note the non-genetic
link between parent and child as a fact or in a note for each? For me it
all boils down to a question: Is it fair to drag the child, kicking and
screaming, from their pedigree and force them into yours and is it fair
to ask a programmer to assist in that unnatural act? I don't think so
(my personal opinion.)

Take Care - Paul \\\ ///

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