Adoption

Here's a trick I copied from a discussion someplace, your mileage might vary, and I totally DISCLAIM results. I'm just copying & pasting, OK? DO NOT raise me if it doesn't work for you! Be very very careful!!!! :<

===================
quoting from someone, don't know who
===================

If you are looking to add another set of parents to someone here is what you will need to do:

- Create another Geni account for the child using an email address different than the one you are currently using for your own account (you will need to create another account/tree)
- Add the other set of parents to it
- Log out of that new Tree
- Log into your original one
- Invite the Child from the other tree using the email address used for that account
- Log out of your account
- Log back into your new account for the child
- Accept the merge request/invite
- Use the settings link to Close that account
- Log back into your original account
- You will now see a secondary/second node/box for the child and s/he will be attached to two sets of parents"

Make sure it's merged before you close the account if you do!

===================

End quote.

http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Adoption

is how I personally did it.
Good luck!

Make sure to vote for this feature on Feature Requests. Select "Me Too!"
http://help.geni.com/entries/427332-support-for-adoptive-parents

That feature request is 3 years old. I wonder why this is difficult. Maybe it causes problems somewhere along the line? Afraid of "outing" someone who doesn't know they are adopted?

No Beth it's a programming issue. If it was easy for Geni to do I have no doubt they would have long since.

may I also suggest a special background color that would highlight the adoptive parents in the tree view

:-)

I think that once a child is adopted, he belongs to the adopting family!
There could be an arrangement done to mention his biological parents if known.
If an adopted person is alive, he/she should decide how they want to appear.
If insisting on following the biological parents - it might turn to a racial matter like in WW2 Germany.

Genealogy is the study of inheriting genes. I understand that the emotional bonds in an adoptive family are often just as strong as in a biological family, however there is no place for recording adoptions in genealogy for the simple reason that there are no genes passed from a person to their adopted child.

Martin you are inaccurate. Here is the definition in Wikipedia, and there is much more than genes to genealogy:
"Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, "generation"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy

Well, accurate, inaccurate - doesn't matter. Adoption is something that some folks would want to note on their tree. Without it, it makes the tree less accurate. So, I'm hoping that whatever the technical difficulties that make this an unavailable notations - get resolved someday.

Certainly if you have an ancestor who is known to be adopted, you want to have a way to represent that. I don't like the way I had to do it, in the About Me. I didn't want multiple sets of parents so I noted the blood parents with a link to the profile in About Me.

Bella, actually the Wikipedia definition in your link confirms I am right: it even goes so far as to recognise that there is a difference between genealogy (no adoptions, just genes) and family history (adoptions etc included).
"Some scholars differentiate between genealogy and family history, limiting genealogy to an account of kinship, while using "family history" to denote the provision of additional details about lives and historical context."

Dear Martin,
Let's agree to disagree. I am bringing the whole link again, rather then copy everything here. Surely everyone can read for themselves and make up their mind about the matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy

OK Bella, happy to accept that our opinions differ.

Here is a good way to handle adoptions untill Geni comes up with a solution. Steve Jobs

Putting (Adoptive) and (Biological) in the display name is the best way to help people distinguish between the two.

Victar, I agree that technically this is a good idea. Personally, if my mom (who is my adopted mother) saw that, she would cry. Adoption is a very sensitive issue.

Yeah, maybe in that case I would just add the biological label.

The tricky thing will be the subject of leased bellies to see if the child is the mother who rented the womb or the mother who put the egg.

Also the issue of children born to a father but then separate and the stepfather change the surname of a child by himself.