2012 Mini Family Reunion |
Some family historians wrestle with the question of how to
document non-blood relations. Should
step-children go on a family tree? How
about adopted children? As keepers of
the family record, we are not just involved in the past, defining the
relationships of our ancestors, we also deal in the present day. We document today’s births, marriages,
divorces, and all the other myriad life events of the present-day greater
family. In fact, one of our most
important roles is to tell the detailed story about the lives of today’s family
so that we will leave future family historians with a better understanding than
they would be able to glean from public records alone.
There are those who question how much detail to include for
either the present or past family narrative.
If there was a second marriage and step-children were brought into the
fold, should the tree include those children?
How about their children when they have them? My answer is that when documenting our family
histories, we are not here to just detail the DNA line. It is our duty to include everyone and
everything. I take this position for several
reasons.