Knowing is half the battle against the "Children". If a REF has an editor ID, it seems more likely to be orphaned after copying over. If any given REF or INFO has ended up orphaned in an FO3Edit session, one has to delete it/them and reload the program, then try again as that particular record will invariably end up orphaned if re-copied in the same session. To save time, if copying into an ESM with a large ONAM list, untick the ESM flag of the recipient file so you don't have to wait for it to build the ONAM list every session until all records are copied and fostered as they should be, then re-tick the ESM flag when done. If ever you encounter an INFO that just won't copy, you can manually add an empty info to the recipient's target topic and assign it the errant INFO's Form ID when doing so, allowing you to then drag/drop the subrecord data and all should work out.