I am a child born out of wedlock and adopted by a loving couple. I have 2 family trees and enjoy working on both of them. Obviously I can only join hereditary societies on my bloodline but I stress to my children that they would not be the people they are without the influence of my parents. My birthfamily, on the other hand has welcomed me openly and i am also proud of their accomplishments. I have had too many problems with merging in Family Treemaker to even think about merging the two trees !Hah! But first, do the children know about their backgrounds and would it embarass them to have this information passed around the family? Please consider this privacy issue before you commit this information to your family tree. Thanks. Marti