September 16 is National Step Family Day. After celebrating the day with your step family, you might be wondering how to include your step parents into your family tree. There are plenty of free family tree templates that you can use to help you do that.
National Step Family Day was founded by Christy Borgeld in 1997. From my perspective, this is a fairly new holiday. I graduated from college in 1997, so it is clear that National Step Family Day didn’t exist when I was a kid. I don’t actually have step parents.
However, one of my siblings has, in many ways, become a step parent. It is nice to see a day that honors his paternal relationship with his daughter, (my niece). What if, one day, my niece decided to take up genealogy? How is a person supposed to include his or her step parents into a family tree?
One simple way to begin is with a free, downloadable, printable, family tree template. Many are designed for families that fit into what might be called a “traditional” pattern. More recently, it has become entirely possible to find a family tree template that fits other family patterns. This is in recognition that not all families are going to look the same.
Family Tree Magazine has a template for step families. Start by placing yourself into the box in the center of the page. This box connects to branches that have boxes for your father, your mother, your step father, and your step mother. There are also boxes for the father of each of these relatives.
Family Tree Templates has a form that also starts with you in the center. From there, it branches out to include your mother, your father, your step mother, and your step father. More boxes let you include your mother’s parents, the parents of your father, and the parents of both your step mother and your step father.
If you want to make your own, unique, family tree, you should also start by placing yourself into the center of the page. Add your parents information into the row above you. Dad goes on the left, and mom goes on the right. Put their names, the date of their marriage, and where they got married. Put the date of their divorce. Draw a line that connects you to each one of your parents.
Did either of your parents remarry? Make a new box for your step father right next to your step mother. Write down when they got married. Connect a line from your step father to your mother. Follow this pattern if your father also got remarried, (and you have a step mother).
Image by rachel_pics on Flickr