In my syllabus for my session “Personalizing WordPress” at RootsTech 2014, I inadvertently left out a section that is required at the top of the CSS file (style.css) when you’re using a child theme. Oops.

At the very top of style.css for your child theme needs to be these lines:

/*
Theme Name: name you want it to display in the dashboard
Description: basic description
Author: your name
Version: anything you choose
Template: name of the parent theme as listed in wp-content/themes (ex.: twentytwelve, twentyfourteen, coraline, etc.)
*/

For example:

/*
Theme Name: My Awesome Genealogy Blog
Description: This is the theme for My Awesome Genealogy Blog, based on the Twenty Twelve theme
Author: John Smith
Version: 0.1
Template: twentytwelve
*/

Put that code at the very top of the style.css file for your child theme. Upload it to the child theme’s folder in wp-content/themes. The child theme will then appear on your dashboard and you’ll be able to activate it.