# Birth/Adoptive Parents **URL:** \ **Category:** Genealogy\ **Created:** [May 2, 2025, 9:07am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570 "2025-05-02T09:07:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![amikot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/amikot/32/1652_2.png) [@amikot](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/amikot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:07am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/1 "2025-05-02T09:07:28Z")
Hi, I have following situation - the person was adopted from birth mother by birth father and his wife. So she has one father (who is a birth father) and two mothers. One birth mother (who played the role of surrogate) and one adoptive mother. My question is - how to set this up correctly. I would like to have both mothers mentioned in the tree. Thanks 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PLegoux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/plegoux/32/413_2.png) [@PLegoux](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/PLegoux)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:18am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/2 "2025-05-02T09:18:31Z")
I will create two families in which the child will participate. The first consists of the biological parents as an unmarried family and the relationships between the child and the parents: father, surrogate mother. The second consists of the two final parents: father and adoptive mother. ---
**Author:** ![amikot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/amikot/32/1652_2.png) [@amikot](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/amikot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:22am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/3 "2025-05-02T09:22:50Z")
but child can’t have more than 2 parents … I don’t know how to set it up. how to link the child to both families ? ---
**Author:** ![PLegoux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/plegoux/32/413_2.png) [@PLegoux](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/PLegoux)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:24am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/4 "2025-05-02T09:24:47Z")
A child can have as many parents as you want in Gramps. Just add it in two or more families. Just order them properly to see them in that order innreports, gedcom, … ---
**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:25am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/5 "2025-05-02T09:25:59Z")
There are other threads discussing how to record similar situations for the data. But the diagrams of secondary families is spotty. > [@How would you go about recording the following (IVF situation) in Gramps?](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/how-would-you-go-about-recording-the-following-ivf-situation-in-gramps/3610): > > I’m interested in finding out how others here would go about recording the following in Gramps? [First UK baby with DNA from three people born after new IVF procedure](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/09/first-uk-baby-with-dna-from-three-people-born-after-new-ivf-procedure) - Exclusive: Mitochondrial donation treatment aims to prevent children from inheriting incurable diseases Would this mean the child could potentially start tracing three separate ancestral lines because of the Mitochondrial donation ? ( Gramps 5.1.5 and Win 11 ) > [@Of possible interest if Gramps ever adds a Genetic Health pedigree](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/of-possible-interest-if-gramps-ever-adds-a-genetic-health-pedigree/1464): > > [Standardized Human Pedigree Nomenclature: Update and Assessment of the Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1007/s10897-008-9169-9) The online document includes specific diagramming and symbols Abstract In 1995, the Pedigree Standardization Task Force (PSTF) of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) proposed a system of pedigree nomenclature. Recently, the PSTF (now called the Pedigree Standardization Work Group or PSWG) sought evidence that the published symbols met the needs of … ---
**Author:** ![amikot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/amikot/32/1652_2.png) [@amikot](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/amikot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:29am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/6 "2025-05-02T09:29:40Z")
Okay … I’ve added her to both families, but this is a bit strange, because “birth” family never existed … birth father just had sex with birth mother once and then adopted the child with his wife … But here in Gramps the family with birth mother looks the same or even more important than the the other one … Is there any way to do it somehow better - I mean to indicate that the family actually never existed ? ---
**Author:** ![PLegoux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/plegoux/32/413_2.png) [@PLegoux](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/PLegoux)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:33am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/7 "2025-05-02T09:33:57Z")
Families is only the word/concept used by Mormons in the (conservative) gedcom standard. I remember a discussion about that on this Dicourse (@emyoulation ?). Gramps/Gedcom doesn’t support three members families (one man and two women) so you have to create two families using the good relationships between the child and its parents. Just order them the right way. May be add a note. I think family type could also be named to a special type you defines ---
**Author:** ![emyoulation](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/emyoulation/32/67_2.png) [@emyoulation](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/emyoulation)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:41am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/8 "2025-05-02T09:41:55Z")
The Surrogacy is important. You can add that as a relationship type for the family. But a event in the family to clarify the variant of surrogacy is helpful. The traditional surrogacy is where one (or both) parent(s) were infertile. So fertile stand-in(s) were selected for a natural conception. Modern options are more diverse. - There could be a sperm or egg doner for In vitro fertilization (IVF). - the birthing mother might be a contracted womb who contibuted no genetics ---
**Author:** ![amikot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/amikot/32/1652_2.png) [@amikot](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/amikot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 9:48am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/9 "2025-05-02T09:48:39Z")
To be honest, I don’t really care how it is “booked” in the DB, but on the family views/trees it looks very bad - and that’s the problem for me. ---
**Author:** ![PLegoux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/plegoux/32/413_2.png) [@PLegoux](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/PLegoux)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 10:55am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/10 "2025-05-02T10:55:44Z")
You ask for “how to set this up correctly. I would like to have both mothers mentioned in the tree” not how to make it look like you want it (what is it anyway?) ---
**Author:** ![SNoiraud](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/snoiraud/32/72_2.png) [@SNoiraud](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/SNoiraud)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 11:02am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/11 "2025-05-02T11:02:00Z")
In graphview, you should have something like: ![adopt1](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/3/304ba42bb31ed345b015814aca802f8c93d16d33.png) The dotted link between the child and the adoptive parents means that he or she was adopted. ---
**Author:** ![amikot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/amikot/32/1652_2.png) [@amikot](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/amikot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 11:14am UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/12 "2025-05-02T11:14:42Z")
I prefer “family tree view” over “gramps view” - here is how it looks: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/2/241c9e277201144a97d1912f3670a9831d4c1ba2.png) It would be better without placeholder for second parent (if not provided). In terms of dotted or solid lines - both views are imperfect here. Each relation type should have it’s own style, and if one parent has different relationship with child than other one, the line should be doubled to make possible to display both styles like solid beside dotted. ---
**Author:** ![comeng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@comeng](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/comeng)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 12:17pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/13 "2025-05-02T12:17:22Z")
You have to remember in genealogy you are dealing with biological ancestry which is the way GEDCOM and GRAMPS is configured the term Family is poor use of English because there can be families of unrelated people (religions often describe themselves as families) so here you have one biological family and one none biological family. My way of doing this with GraphView is attached green for married orange for unmarried although in a lot of cases I do not bother because the step relationship is not important to me although I know it is to others so the individual (male/female) will have multiple partners but the child only two parents. phil ![Alternative Family](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/2/22beb064841b1b263bd894f228efe48116132270.png) ---
**Author:** ![amikot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/amikot/32/1652_2.png) [@amikot](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/amikot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/14 "2025-05-02T15:23:31Z")
I do understand limitations of Gramps and GEDCOM, but in my opinion this is more views and graph reports. I’ve already posted Idea on the github for Family Tree View addon - I hope devs will like my idea. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/1X/2ac1e712b7adf612e31ca08a55419f4cf37c0158.png) [@system](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/birth-adoptive-parents/7570/15 "2025-06-01T15:23:47Z")
Closed on June 1, 2025, 3:23pm UTC This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.