So, how are they related?

Project nachonaco said:

How are Jessie's niece and the influential dude's daughter realated?

Click to expand...

They aren't (that's aren't, not aunt)

Dude's daughter is Jessie's Sister-in-law's step-daughter - right?

Jessie's neice doesn't have an official/blood relationship with her. I reckon the nearest you could get is step-cousin once removed.

Jessie is Dude's daughter's aunt by marriage. No blood relation, but a legally recognized relationship in many jurisdictions.

So Dude's daughter is also Amelia's daughter?

That make's her Jessie & Steve's neice.

Which I think makes her a cousin of Jessie's neice. Because Jessie's neice would also be Steve's neice.

Oops - that "brief explanation" has just done my head in!

:OFG wanders in:





:OFG wanders out:

Who are the parents of Jessie's niece?

If the man's daughter is by a former marriage, which is the way I took the first post, the girls would not be kin at all. . .

UNLESS, the niece Jessie is raising is a child of Amelia's. Then they would be step-sisters.

I have lots of step-cousins. I'd go with that.

Just to confuse things further: If I've got this right, Amelia (mother of Dude's kid) is Steve's sister and Jessie's SIL.

So, if the neice Jessie brings up is the daughter of one of her own siblings, the two kids are not cousins because they don't share the same grandparents. Which would take us back to them not being related.

Take a look at this, PN, but take a pill first:

http://www.genealogy.com/16_cousn.html

The thing is, "related" means different things in different contexts.

What's their biological relationship? Nothing at all.

What's their legal relationship? That's going to vary depending on what country they're in. It's probably undefined in most countries, except for questions of inheritance or who someone's "next of kin" is. But that most likely wouldn't matter unless everyone in-between were already dead. Then it could also matter whether Jessie legally adopted her niece or just has custody of her.

But I expect you're really asking about their common, everyday social relationship. That's mostly going to depend on the family's cultural background, what their attitude is about "proper bloodlines", and so on. It also may depend on how old the two are. If they were both in their late teens or older when this all came into being, they may not feel related at all. If they're young children, or it's been going on since they were young children, they may have a close connection.

I imagine most families would consider them to be step-cousins. Some families reject the "step-" distinction, though, and would just call them cousins.

Two things are not clear to me. Here's what I do understand.

Jessie and Steve are a couple. Amelia and Dude are a couple. Steve and Amelia are siblings, brother and sister born to the same parents.

Dude has a daughter. I don't know who her mother is. Could be Amelia. Could be some other woman. If Amelia is the mother, then Dude Daughter is Jessie's (and Steve's) niece. If Dude Daughter was born to some other woman, there is no blood relation to Jessie or Steve.

Jessie has a niece. Niece's parents are either Jessie's sibling and mate, or Steve's sibling and mate. Assuming this Niece is not the same person as Dude's Daughter, who Niece's parents are makes all the difference.

Most people who meet the girls will not want to draw a genealogy chart. Generally the families just agree on a term, such as step-cousins (if Amelia is not Dude-Daughter's mother) or even second cousins (which is just plain wrong--but commonly used).

Maryn, who's studied this stuff a bit

ARGH!



My head just exploded.

This is surely too complicated to make a reader understand while trying to take in fiction too.

But, I think the question is, who's on first?

I'd go with cousins ---or the Yiddish term machetuneste (a female relative through marriage).