Half-Siblings, Step-Family, Adoption & Foster

Blended families come down to one rule: a child has a separate line to each parent. Who a child is connected to decides whether siblings are full, half, or step. There's no half-sibling setting to look for.

Half-siblings (one shared parent)

Example: you and your sister share a mother but have different fathers.

1. Select your mother and press Add Partner to add the sister's father as her second partner. Set that line's type (for example Divorce or Dating) on the Line type tab.
2. Select that new partner (the sister's father) and press Add Child. The child is added to that couple only: mother plus second partner.

Start from the partner who has only one relationship. Add Child on a person with several partners uses the first couple it finds, which may not be the one you meant.

If the sister already exists: start Draw Connection from her and let go on the line between the correct two parents. She's connected to both in one step.

If a child got both parents by mistake: click the parent-child line to the wrong parent and press Delete. Only that one line goes, and the child stays connected to the shared parent.

Unknown other parent: it's fine to connect a child to just one parent. You can also add a placeholder person, set their gender to Unknown, and leave the name blank.

Step-parents and step-siblings

The quickest way: click the child, hover Add Parents in the ring (long-press on touch) and choose Step-parent, or right-click the child and choose Add parent → Step-parent. The step-parent is added beside the parent with the step line set up for you. If that parent is still in a couple with someone else, adding a step-parent ends that couple; press Undo if that isn't what you meant.

You can still do it by hand: connect the step-parent to the child's parent as a partner, then draw a Parent → Child connection from the step-parent and set its Child type to Step. Step-siblings have no shared parent, so they appear as each partner's children from earlier relationships.

Adopted, foster, and donor-conceived children

For a new child, hover Add Child in the ring and pick Adopted or Foster; for new parents of an existing child, hover Add Parents and pick Adoptive parent or Foster parent. An adopted or fostered child can also get Birth parents from the same menu (or Add birth parents on right-click).

To change an existing line, click the line from a parent to the child and choose a Child type in the Inspector:

• Biological: solid line (default)
• Adopted: double line, solid beside dotted
• Foster: dotted line
• Step: dash-dot line
• Donor, then Surrogate, Sperm donor or Egg donor: dashed lines marked S, SD, and ED

Each parent's line is set separately, so a child adopted by a step-parent can be Biological to one parent and Adopted by the other. The biological parent can stay on the chart too.