Open Adoption with Birth Family Contact
Adoption genogram showing an open adoption with the birth mother’s family and an international adoption with unknown birth parents (BP badge).
Interactive Open Adoption with Birth Family Contact
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About This Genogram
A three-generation genogram of a fictional Jewish-American adoptive family with two adopted children: a son in an open domestic adoption whose birth mother, her husband and his half-sister are part of his life, and a daughter adopted from Colombia whose birth parents are unknown. Shows adoption years, birth-parent lines and the BP badge.
How to Read This Genogram
A family structure genogram maps household composition and biological or legal relationships across at least three generations using a standardized set of structural lines. Solid horizontal lines between two symbols indicate a committed partnership or marriage; a single diagonal slash through that line marks a separation, and a double slash marks a divorce. Children descend from the couple line on vertical drops, and their birth order runs left to right. Dashed lines or dotted horizontal connectors indicate step, foster, or adoptive bonds, so that a reader can distinguish biological parentage from the household arrangement in which a child was actually raised.
Reading a family structure genogram begins at the top generation and moves downward, noting who forms each household at each generational level. The key questions are: Which children grew up together? Which adults held parenting roles, and were those roles biological, legal, or both? Where do the generational boundaries fall? Households that contain members from more than one biological line, or that skip a generation, stand out visually and prompt the clinician to ask how those arrangements shaped each member's experience of family. Structure alone does not explain behavior, but it establishes the relational architecture on which emotional patterns are later mapped.
Key Patterns in This Genogram
Family Structure
How this family structure is represented using standard genogram notation.
Relationship Patterns
Key relationship dynamics and emotional bonds within the family system.
Clinical Application
How professionals use this type of genogram in assessment and treatment.
Family Analysis
Rachel and Mark Feldman married in 2003 and, after several years of infertility, adopted two children. Jaylen (15) was placed at birth in 2011 through an open adoption agreement with his birth mother, Destiny, who was 18 at the time; the family meets twice a year. Sofia (12) was adopted from Colombia in 2016 at age two; nothing is known of her birth parents.
The genogram puts Jaylen’s two families on one page: his adoptive grandparents on both sides, and his birth mother Destiny, her husband Andre and their daughter Nia (Jaylen’s half-sister). The close line between Jaylen and Destiny shows the openness working well. Sofia’s chart looks different: a BP badge rather than named people, and an immigration marker on her line.
The contrast is clinically useful. Sofia asked in 2025 to search for her birth family, and adoptive parents often worry that such a search means rejection. The genogram lets the family see that one open adoption has already added relationships without taking any away, and it highlights Rachel’s close bond with Sofia as the base for that search.
Build a Similar Genogram
A practitioner documenting a family similar to this one would typically record three generations of household composition, significant life events such as births, deaths, marriages, and separations, any relevant medical or mental health history, and the quality of key relationships between members. That information comes from a combination of the client's verbal account, intake questionnaires, and, where available, collateral records. The completed diagram captures both the factual structure of the family and the practitioner's clinical observations about relational patterns, making it a reference that can be shared across disciplines or reviewed at future stages of treatment.
GenogramAI's AI genogram generator allows you to build a diagram like this one from a plain-language description of the family. You type or paste a narrative, such as the basic structure and any key relationships or health history you want to include, and the AI parses that text, places the correct symbols, draws the appropriate relationship lines, and arranges the layout automatically. The result is a fully editable diagram that you can refine, annotate, and export for clinical records or educational use. Try the AI genogram creator to generate your own genogram from a text description in seconds.
Genogram Symbols Used in This Example
The following standard genogram symbols appear in the Open Adoption with Birth Family Contact. Each symbol follows McGoldrick and Gerson clinical notation conventions.
Person Symbols
- Male (Square)
- A square represents a male family member.
- Female (Circle)
- A circle represents a female family member.
- Index person (highlighted outline)
- The person at the centre of the assessment is drawn with a highlighted outline.
- Deceased (X)
- An X through the symbol marks a person who has died; birth and death years are written above it.
- Age inside the symbol
- The current age (or age at death) is written inside each symbol, with years above it.
Adoption
- Adopted child
- A dashed child line marks adoption, labelled with the adoption year.
- Birth parent
- A curved line links a birth parent to a child who was adopted; birth parents who are unknown can be folded into a small BP badge.
- Immigration marker
- A double wavy mark on a person’s line records immigration; a single wavy mark records living across two cultures.
Couples
- Marriage
- A solid line between partners; the marriage year is written on the line (m 90 = married 1990).
- Widowed
- A small x on the couple line marks the end of a marriage through death (wid 15).
Emotional Relationships
- Close
- Two parallel blue lines mark an emotionally close relationship.
Medical
- Medical shading
- The left half of a symbol is shaded for a physical or mental illness and the bottom half for alcohol or drug use; each condition has its own colour, listed in the key. Hatching means suspected, a partial fill means in recovery.
Related Resources
- Read the full guide to the adoption symbol.
- Compare with our adoptive family genogram.
- Learn how genograms in child welfare record birth and adoptive families.
- See how to read a genogram for the basics.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you draw birth parents on an adoption genogram?
What if the birth parents are unknown?
Why include the birth mother’s new family?
How do I mark an adoption in GenogramAI?
Related Genogram Examples
Blended Step-Family Genogram
A complex blended step-family genogram showing two divorced parents who remarried each other, each bringing children from prior marriages.
Single Parent Family Genogram
A genogram depicting a single mother raising three children after her husband\'s unexpected death.
Three-Generation Household
A multigenerational Chinese-American family genogram illustrating three generations living under one roof.
Create Your Own Genogram
Use GenogramAI to build your own family genogram with AI assistance. Describe your family and let AI do the rest.
Educational disclaimer: This genogram example is an educational illustration of genogram notation and family systems concepts. Examples based on public figures use publicly available information. They are not clinical documents. All examples are intended for learning genogram symbols and patterns.