When we think of genealogy and the family tree, we may think of a neatly organized chart with lines connecting parents to children and so forth. Many modern families’ kinship relations do not fit neatly within a standard pedigree chart, though. With divorces, remarriages, adoptions, and many other things, the definition of “family” depends largely upon who you ask. What, then, is a genealogist to do? Most genealogy software wants us to enter our data into the traditional categories and display them in the traditional ways. How do we adjust the concept of the family tree to include people to whom we are not related by blood, but whom we regard as family?
Blended families are by no means a new concept. In fact, many people with African American, Native American, and other cultural backgrounds may come across non-traditional family structures in their research going back for generations. Tribes and other family group structures can make research challenging, but they can also add a depth and richness to the story of how your current family came to be. By the same token, divorce and remarriage can give children the opportunity to be raised by not just one but two or more sets of loving parents. There is a story behind every adoption, and adoptees often want to know the heritage of not only the people who raised them as their own, but the parents from whom they are descended by blood.
Fortunately, there are resources that can help you with researching your blended family or that of your ancestors. A simple web search for African American genealogy, Native American genealogy, or adoption and genealogy can point you in the right direction. As our definition of family continues to expand and to change, we genealogists can help preserve our rich and varied legacies by creating genealogy “artifacts” such as family history books or scrapbooks that portray the totality of our families in a way that chart-based genealogy can not.
Photo by taliesin on morguefile.com.