I have a situation where the parents died and 3 of the 4 children were raised by an uncle and aunt. What is the best way to show this in RootsMagic? I have no evidence of an adoption or legal guardianship. The aunt’s obituary says she “was a mother to” the 3 children. (The 4th child was adopted by a minister who specialized in reforming wayward boys.)
There is an “Related” option. One thing to consider is not all adoptions were formalized, given the time and money of the parties.
You need to enter each of the four children as children of the biological parents and also as children as their respective foster/adoptive parents, even if the adoptions were informal rather than formal in the legal sense. For three of the children, the second set of parents will be the uncle and aunt, and for the fourth child the second set of parents will be the minister and his wife (or just the minister if he didn’t have a wife).
There is a field for indicating the kind of relationship - birth parents, adoptive parents, etc. - but the field has virtually no effect on reports. So it’s also a good idea to add notes so that the birth parent vs. the foster/adoptive parent relationships are visible in reports.
Time and money are not the only things to consider: Adoptions were first made legal in England and Wales with the passing of the Adoption Act 1926, while in Northern Ireland it was 1929 and in Scotland it was 1930.