Complex Family Relationships

I had a phone call from a friend yesterday. "I am helping someone whose mother had children with two different men before marrying a third and having children with him. He also had children from a previous marriage, and adopted her children. How can I help her put all of this in Family Tree?"

I explained that Family Tree can easily record all of these relationships. If she goes to the mother's record she can Add Spouse as often as necessary. Likewise for her father. And when the children are added, remember that children can be shown with multiple sets of parents. You can edit the Parent-Child Relationship to specify the type of relationship: Adoptive, Biological. Foster, Guardianship, Step

Click the Edit icon (pencil) on the child's relationship line and select the parent and choose the relationship type from the drop-down list.

In this member's situation, she can list her mother's three biological families, add her mother's husband's prior children as her mother's step children. and that her mother's prior children are her husband's adopted children, etc.  

(See this short video.)
Add Relationship Type in Family Search | LDS Family History Tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vrJNrg8YvQ

The easy way to add the children to another set of parents is to go to the Person page of the shared parent and copy and paste the IDs of the children from one spouse's family into the other spouse's family.

Note that prior to the 1900s, adoptions were often informal, without any legal paperwork. But the relationships were still adoptions.

I was glad to find this helpful video. Give it a "Like" if it is helpful to you.