Adoption

A member of a family can register another character as their child, by birth (claim) or by adoption.

Both need two parents who are each in a family, and a child who is in none. Any two characters can be the parents. For a birth each is at least 18 years older than the child; an adoption has no age rule.

• The parent whose family the child should join types 'family claim <child> <other parent>', or 'family adopt' the same way. The child gets that parent's ORIGINAL family name, not a spouse's (HELP SPOUSE).
• The other parent and the child each type 'family requests', then 'family accept <number>'. They need not be online together.
• When both have accepted, the child is in the family and the fee is taken from the parent who asked.

YOUR INVOLVEMENT AFFECTS YOUR CHILD! WHOIS calls the child illegitimate when a parent is married to someone else, born out of wedlock when the parents are not married to each other, and adopted when adopted.

A paper form you still carry can be signed as before with 'family sign'.