Half-Siblings, Step-Family, Adoption & Foster
How to model blended families: shared parents, step-parents, adopted and foster children.
Blended families are the single most common source of confusion in genogram tools. The rule that unlocks all of it: a child is connected to each parent individually — so who a child is connected to defines full, half, and step relationships.
Half-siblings (one shared parent)
Half-siblings share exactly one parent. Connect the child to the shared parent only — not to both members of the couple:
- Select the shared parent (for example, your mom)
- Add the child from that parent — not from the couple's marriage line
- If the other biological parent matters for your genogram, add them as their own person, connect them to the shared parent with the appropriate relationship (divorce, past partner), and connect the child to them too
If the app keeps giving the child both parents: click the parent-child line that shouldn't exist and delete that single connection. The child stays connected to the correct parent.
You can also just tell the AI assistant: "Maria is my mom's daughter from a previous marriage" — it creates the half-sibling structure for you.
Step-parents and step-siblings
A step-parent has no biological line to the child — the relationship exists through the marriage. Connect the step-parent to the biological parent (marriage/partnership), and if you want an explicit step link to the child, click the parent-child connection and set its type to Step.
Adopted, foster, and donor children
Click any parent-child line to change its connection type:
- Biological — solid line (default)
- Adopted — standard adoption notation
- Foster — foster placement
- Step — step-relationship through a partner
- Surrogate / Sperm donor / Egg donor — assisted-reproduction notations
These render with the standard genogram notation for each type and appear in the key automatically.