The problem, as I see it, with using "Zellhoefer-Klotz" is that this is
not their surname - it is "Zellhoefer". By making it a hyphenated name I
believe you are adding to the confusion, not clarifying. If you know the
names of their parents, as apparently you do, then this is where they
belong as natural children. You can also add to their *new* family but
only with their true surname. I am sure you know exactly what the
situation is, and have documented accordingly, but I can see lots of
confusion in future generations when they try to sort it all out,
wondering perhaps if "Zellhoefer-Klotz" is really their true surname.
You can bet that someone, at some point, will record the name as
"Zellhoefer-Klotz", without bothering to record any explanation and the
confusion can get really bad - - it can eventually become gospel and
very difficult, if not impossible, to correct.
Also if they are not legally adopted I do not feel the term should be
used as it simply does not apply. There is also the poor soul who might
come along and think there may well be documents somewhere relating to
a court ordered adoption.
I think in all situations of any sort we must look at our entry(s) with
the eyes of someone 150 years from now and act accordingly. The hobby is
for our enjoyment but we record for the future.
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Klotz Zellhoefer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 8:14 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Descendant Narrative Book - child status
My own ancestry has a similar adoptive situation. The mother died in
childbirth of twins ZELLHOEFER leaving 4 children. The father
remarried a widow w/child, 3 more children, then father died in the
Civil War, and his now widowed again wife#2 did not keep the 4
children of wife#1. The twins were "adopted" by KLOTZ of another
Wisconsin county, Mrs Klotz being too old to have been the natural
mother of the twins, but the twins were ever after named "Klotz".
All this was during the pioneer settlement days in pre/early statehood
Wisconsin. Recordation of documents in those early days was not
required and thus sporadic. Searched to exhaustion, none of the key
birth / marriage / adoption / death / probate instruments are of
record. We have found nothing re: dispostion of the twin's siblings.
Evidence is only family lore and a single newspaper clipping which
lists the attendees at a Klotz-Zellhoefer reunion 71 years later.
My own solution to the posting dilemma was to give the twins the
surname Zellhoefer-Klotz, posting them as the natural children of
Zellhoefer, and including them as the adopted children of Klotz.
Appropriate notes are also included within their individual records so
as to clarify all.
I just checked my Legacy pedigree-format webpages for the above, and
find that I would need to add an adoption event to these records, and
also need to clean up some of my own notes!
A Legacy problem visible at my http://zelltree.com/pedigrees/11.htm:
I also found that the parent links shown in the "Family Links" box
don't work as expected, moving back to the subject individual rather
than to either the natural or adoptive parents. These webpages were
produced July 2004 so thus using an earlier version of Legacy. I will
be republishing fairly soon, and will recheck to seen if that and/or
other problems remain, but having just gone thru all this in order to
write this E, I see several Legacy "report" items to be watching for,
and will report again later.
RonKZ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Montgomery" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, 25 May, 2005 07:34
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Descendant Narrative Book - child status
If there was no legal adoption then the child should not be listed as
such......she should be listed with her own bio nuclear family. That
said, if the bio family is blood related then that is the end of it
(notes of course to clarify) but if she was the child of a non
related family, i. e. friend, and raised as one of their own then it
is not so easy. You can certainly show this individual in the
"adoptive" family as well but be very clear with your explanation as
to just who she is and the circumstances as to the connection with
the new family. Or, you can leave her off the children listing and in
notes, or an event, lay out the situation in detail. If you decide to
list her be sure to use the proper surname, not the name of her new
family as this would be incorrect. I see nothing wrong with showing
her as a child as long as the name is correct and details are
recorded elsewhere.
Tom.........
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Young" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 5:45 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Descendant Narrative Book - child status
Hi, Tom
you wrote
I did not receive this original thread
no worries ... my problem is, an "adopted" child who is listed
exactly
the same as the biological children in the family sentence, thus
"John Lewis and Elspeth Beatson married ... they had four children,
Elizabeth, John, Janet and James."
Because the surnames are not shown, you can't tell that Elizabeth was
_not_ their biological child, her surname was _not_ Lewis but
Morwood.
if the last name was not changed then the individual
*usually* is not a court ordered adoption.
there was never a
formal adoption process.....the term used, however, was "adopted".
In
these cases the individual can be placed in both families but
"adopted" should be used *only" when it is a legal court action.
I have found no record of formal adoption, but the word "adoption"
was
always used in the family. So what does one call the relationship??
Cheers,
Mary Young
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