Family relationships are fun to study, and become a vital part of every family reunion. One’s relationship with aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents and first cousins are readily identifiable.
It’s when we go beyond these traditional relationships that the terms used to identify kith and kin cause some confusion.
•Do you find cousin-ship baffling?
First cousins have the same grandparents.
Second cousins have the same great-grandparents, but not the same grandparents.
Third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents.
Fourth cousins have the same great-great-great-grandparents, and so forth.
• What’s this about removed cousins?
If your father or mother was a third cousin to someone, you are that person’s third cousin, once removed, not his fourth cousin.
Once removed means there is one generation difference between two people – twice removed is a two-generation difference, etc.
• Is it great uncle/aunt or granduncle/aunt?
Most of use “great” which is incorrect! Using the appropriate term places our aunts and uncles in the proper generation.
Uncles/aunts are the siblings of your parents.
Granduncles/aunts are siblings of grandparents.
Great-granduncles/aunts are the siblings of your great-grandparents, and so forth.
• Double Cousins?
Today, double cousins are somewhat of a rarity, but in the early days of this country, and particularly in remote areas with a limited gene pool, this relationship was fairly common.
Double cousins are first cousins twice removed. This occurs when their fathers’ sibling marries their mothers’ sibling and both couples have a child. As a result, all double cousins share both sets of grandparents.
Halfs? Half brothers and/or half sisters only share or have one parent in common. Example: Half sisters can have the same father but different mothers, etc. Step relatives do not share a blood relationship but do share a close legal relationship due to a parents or their own re-marriage.
• In-laws, Kith and Kin
In-laws are persons related by marriage only and are sometimes referred to as “relatives” or affines.
The term “kith and kin” is often used erroneously to refer to any and all family relationships, including in-laws. “Kin” denotes blood relatives, while “kith” signifies unrelated friends, acquaintances, persons of common background, language or customs, etc.
Interpreting relationships in early day documents, particularly wills, can be tricky. Relationships as we know them today did not evolve until well after the 1750s. For example, niece or nephew could be used to describe a grandson or granddaughter, and in some cases “nephew” signified both sexes.
Cousin relationships are seldom defined. Cousin Mary is “Cousin Mary,” not “second Cousin Mary.” Cousin might also mean a niece or nephew. Aunt or uncle could signify a close relationship with a dear friend, nursemaid, or servant which did not signify a blood relationship.
In addition to the obvious meaning, “brother” could indicate: the husband of one’s sister; the brother of one’s wife; the husband of one’s sister-in-law, a half-brother, a stepbrother or a brother in the church.
Father-in-law and mother-in-law may refer to a stepparent. Son-in-law and daughter-in-law may refer to a stepchild.
If you would like to explore this subject in detail, try “Kinship – It’s all Relative,” by Jackie Smith Arnold, and “Blood Kin and In-Laws,” by G.H. Amber. Both are excellent sources for defining relationships by blood as well as marriage.
On the Internet, try “Cousins and Kinship” on Cyndi’s List at http://www.cyndslist.com/
Carllene Marek has been chasing ancestors for more than 25 years and chasing her muse for many more. A second-generation Californian, she has helped with several computer user groups, family associations and genealogical and historical societies. She has also compiled numerous indexes for assorted publications and written book reviews for various historical and genealogical publications.
Carllene currently writes a monthly newspaper column, “AncestreeSeekers,” for the Chico Enterprise Record and the Oroville Mercury Register. She and her husband live in the Sierra Nevada foothills of northern California with a blended family of eight children, 12 grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
