The Family Tree as Tangled Forest

Though not this straightforward Nelson family genealogy as prepared by my Aunt Ruth Benander more than 25 years ago. Updating it was to be one of my retirement projects, starting in the fall of 2008. It's still on the hold shelf. (My grandfather's name is highlighted.)

Who's on the Family Tree?  Now It's Complicated.  (The New York Times, 7/5/2011)

Excerpt:  Many families are grappling with similar questions as a family tree today is beginning to look more like a tangled forest. Genealogists have long defined familial relations along bloodlines or marriage. But as the composition of families changes, so too has the notion of who gets a branch on the family tree.

Some families now organize their family tree into two separate histories: genetic and emotional. Some schools, where charting family history has traditionally been a classroom project, are now skipping the exercise altogether.

And here's "Pa" and "Ma" with their 7 children at Sinnissippi Park, Rockford, Illinois.  (Photo taken in 1956 or 1957.)  From left to right they stand in chronological order, a seemingly mandatory arrangement in the Nelson family, from youngest to oldest:  Carl (my dad), Ruth, Lila, Signe, Stella, Svea, and Ford.