Post by Howard Metcalfe on Jan 21, 2007 15:56:40 GMT -5
Q: I can't discriminate between adoptions by a couple and an adoption by just one of them. And do I place an adopted child under the birth parents or under the adoptive parents? And a casual reference to adoption in the notes doesn't seem enough.
A: If I know the birth parents of an adopted child, I place the child with his or her birth name under those parents and make reference to the adoption in the notes of the child and the adoptive parents.
If I don't know the birth parents, then I place the child under the adoptive parents (with the birth surname if known) and check the Adopted box.
I try to do this consistently. So far I have 26 people with the adoption box checked, but that is out of 39.437 people.
I know the way I handle adopted children is far from perfect, including not being able to discriminate between a child adopted by the couple and a child adopted by just one person. In fact, adding adoptions originally was an afterthought, since it wasn't in PAF, but it had a handy GEDCOM tag, so I just added the minimum.
So I apologize for not developing the adoption feature to a greater extent than just the check box. Doing more at this time is not in the cards.
In addition, I don't consider the notes to be casual. The PAWriter philosophy is that the notes are primary, wherein all the evidence, etc., is presented, and the summary vitals (e.g., birth date and place,etc.) represent conclusions as to the true facts as best as can be determined from the evidence. This is a philosophy that is a bit different from other programs and accounts for various features in the notes such as footnotes (see the FAQ on "Footnotes within Notes" and the topic "Raison d'etre" in the Reference Guide).
A: If I know the birth parents of an adopted child, I place the child with his or her birth name under those parents and make reference to the adoption in the notes of the child and the adoptive parents.
If I don't know the birth parents, then I place the child under the adoptive parents (with the birth surname if known) and check the Adopted box.
I try to do this consistently. So far I have 26 people with the adoption box checked, but that is out of 39.437 people.
I know the way I handle adopted children is far from perfect, including not being able to discriminate between a child adopted by the couple and a child adopted by just one person. In fact, adding adoptions originally was an afterthought, since it wasn't in PAF, but it had a handy GEDCOM tag, so I just added the minimum.
So I apologize for not developing the adoption feature to a greater extent than just the check box. Doing more at this time is not in the cards.
In addition, I don't consider the notes to be casual. The PAWriter philosophy is that the notes are primary, wherein all the evidence, etc., is presented, and the summary vitals (e.g., birth date and place,etc.) represent conclusions as to the true facts as best as can be determined from the evidence. This is a philosophy that is a bit different from other programs and accounts for various features in the notes such as footnotes (see the FAQ on "Footnotes within Notes" and the topic "Raison d'etre" in the Reference Guide).