[RavenSong]

Nicole, I think a lot of people, including the media, also assume that "only" children are "spoiled".

Howdy, I can see how obituaries listing survivors as "adopted" can be extremely helpful to future generations researching genealogy. My lifelong hobby is genealogy, and I've gleaned so much from obits going back to the 1800's. But I'm still uncomfortable that a family member who is writing the obit for the newspaper includes the fact that a survivor was adopted. I somehow just don't think that they're listing adoptive status for genealogical reasons. I could easily be wrong about that, though.

I totally understand your mother focusing on her mom's birth family in her genealogy research. The "pure" form of genealogy focuses on actual bloodlines. Lately, though, some of the major genealogy software programs have made changes so that "social" families can be included in the family trees. For example, I was able to attach my son to two sets of parents in Roots Magic. So he can now see his family tree in either his birth family view or adoptive family view. It's pretty cool...