Relatives

Element I: Family Heritage

Understanding family relationships or "kinship" is a significant element in your practice of LIFECRAFT. Most people understand their kinship to parents, grand parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, but beyond that relationships can be confusing.

While determining relationships between individuals is a critical element in constructing an accurate genealogy, there is a deeper rooting that comes from connecting outward into the larger network of people we call family.

Knowing how someone is related to us can create a bridge between two people who otherwise might never have known they shared something of importance in common. In some cultures, there is nothing more important than knowing one's place in the family tree and one's relationship to common ancestors. While this does not mean that because someone is related to us we will instantly become best friends, it's a start to a very special way to get to know someone.

People can be related to us by marriage, birth or adoption into a related family. There are many different words which describe how someone is related to us. For example: Uncle, Aunt, Cousin, describe where in the family tree that person is related to us and how closely i.e. a First Cousin is different from a Second Cousin, or a Great Uncle is different from an Uncle. First, we must distinguish between direct ancestors and collateral relatives.

Direct Ancestors

A direct ancestor is someone listed on your lineage chart, namely your parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on.

Collateral Relatives

A collateral relative is not listed on your lineage chart, but would appear on family group records as brothers and sisters of your direct ancestors. These include your aunts and uncles and their descendants.

In-Laws

In-laws are the ancestors and relatives of a husband or wife. The father of a spouse is called the father-in-law. The aunt of a spouse is the aunt-in-law, and a cousin is a cousin-in-law, and so on.

Step Relations

When a man or woman marries a spouse with children from a previous relationship the children become step son's and daughters to the new parent. The new parent becomes a step father or step mother to the children. If both parents bring children to the marriage, the children become step brothers and sisters to each other.

Half Relations

Half relations are when someone is related to you through only one of your direct relatives. For example, if your mother remarried and had a baby boy with her new husband - your step father, the baby boy is your half brother because both of you have the same mother but different fathers.

Return to Element I Index: Family Heritage

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