Generals and Family members?

[praetorians cavalry]

Hi I've just started my first campaign a couple hours ago and I noticed that beside the family members like in RTW, I could also use the "generals" to command armies and govern provinces. Those generals have command stars, piety... just like family members, however I couldn't seem to recruit any new generals apart from the ones given at the start of the campaign. They don't have place in the family tree, too. So I'd like to know what are their roles in the game and how can I have more of them? Thanks in advance.
Ps: sorry one more thing: am I still able to adopt captains who win battles?

[chunkynut]

Its a similar system to RTW, you can either adopt, have a captain promoted in the field through winning a 'heroic victory' battle (they must also survive the battle - had a couple promoted when they died in the field says some message about passing away), or marrying you pricess to the offered general (losses the princess in the process). Or you use your princess to marry a foriegn general (not heir) and they 'defect'.

And obviously boy children in the family tree grow up to generals.

[praetorians cavalry]

I think you misunderstood me. At the start of the campaign the player is given some generals unit. But if you check your family tree these generals are not there. It seems they do not belong to your family but serve the king. The boys in the family grow up become real family members. Can you please look into this again?

[Comrade Alexeo]

I think you misunderstood me. At the start of the campaign the player is given some generals unit. But if you check your family tree these generals are not there. It seems they do not belong to your family but serve the king. The boys in the family grow up become real family members. Can you please look into this again?

It's a bit different from RTW.

Family members are family members, and Generals are Generals. They don't intersect.

Family members represent the actual Royal House - the king and his family. They can do anything a General can, but they can also inherit the throne.

Generals vaguely represent both your military commanders and members of the nobility. They do all the things that Generals normally do, but they cannot ever lead your faction unless brought into the Royal House; marrying one of your Princesses to one, for example. Note that you can also occasionally have Generals adopted into the Royal House in a second-stage version of "Man of the Hour" (the first stage of course being a Captain who becomes a General); this happened to me in my current HRE campaign. You can GAIN generals by either using a Princess to marry an enemy general and thereby "steal" him, or they'll occasionally offer to marry your Princesses on their own volition.

As a rule, all (male) family members are generals, but not all generals are family members.

[Jan Zamoyski]

I think you misunderstood me. At the start of the campaign the player is given some generals unit. But if you check your family tree these generals are not there. It seems they do not belong to your family but serve the king. The boys in the family grow up become real family members. Can you please look into this again?

Are you sure about that? So far in my two games- one as a Venice, the other one as Poland, I've never had a general not belonging to a royal family, not even at the start of the game.

[praetorians cavalry]

Alexeo,
I think all of the possibilities you mentioned actually give "real" family members, the ones that ARE in the Royal Court. Normal generals ( who you can adopt in the second-stage version thing and marry your princesses to ) I've only met at the beginning of the campaign. In the character panel they are clearly showed as "general". I haven't tried bribe though.
Jan,
Yes, I play as the French. You can right-click some of your governors to find them. In the character panel thay are called " general ". If you check the family tree, they are not in there.
Edit: If I remember correctly, all generals and family members are listed in the faction summary window, the list army/settlement/agent section.