Way OT - how do you define "kin"?

[Ysabel Kid]

My son is working on his "Family Member" activity pin for Webelos, and this includes the chance to earn a "belt loop" on "Heritage". This is one of my favorite topics (family history/geneology), so I have been having a lot of fun helping him on this.

We got into a discussion on relations - via blood or marriage. This then went into a general discussion of "kin" (as in "kinfolk"). To me, I define "kin" very broadly - anyone who has any connection to me via blood or marriage no matter how far removed. Some are indeed very distant - married-to marrie-to-married-to etc. Others would be the "standard" most people thing about (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.).

So, how do you all define your kin?

[J Miller]

So, how do you all define your kin?

Mostly dead.









Joe

[Old Ironsights]

If'n ya cain't marry - y'er Kin.

[41bear]

You're right theres blood kin and marriage kin. I only have one Aunt still living and she is marriage kin, I love her but it just doesn't seem the same. There is that special bond with blood kin that just isn't there with anyone else. At least its that way with me.

[bogus bill]

Anybody blood related I would think.

[Tycer]

OI has it right.

[cnjarvis]

By blood, anywhere in the line.

By marriage, not much (if any) farther than the brother/sister in law level.

[Old Savage]

All blood related and some married related - case by case. If you go to extended cousins we may all be related. At least by race and country and sometimes farther.

[Hobie]

In my parent's side of the family, it was more your way, blood relations and their spouses. On my wife's side it is limited to first cousins. Really. I do a lot of genealogy work and my wife has poopooed it saying, "they aren't in our family" of her 1st cousins once removed and 2nd cousins.

[jeepnik]

Well, I've got some who are related by blood. Others by marriage. And, a third group who have been family friends so long, they are kin anyway you look at it. Truth be told, some of my unrelated aunts, uncles and cousins have been closer than those related by blood or marriage. Kin folk are those too whom we have a lifetime connection. Blood and marriage aren't necessary.

[FWiedner]

Kinship denotes common ancestry. Family includes blood, non-blood, and marriage relationships.

[adirondakjack]

Kin does in fact denote "by blood".

Family is a little looser concept, and may include by marriage, ex-inlaws, even good friends.


Psychologists talk about how folks divide the world into three groups, "Kin", "kind", and "other".

Now "kind" can be race, place of origin, profession, or shared membership in some group like levergunners.

"Others" are the ones tossed off the leaky boat

[99savage308]

"kin"

By blood only. I have one brother n law and there is nooooooooo way I would ever concider him "kin"...
.

[Bruce Scott]

I have always thought of kin as being those related by blood. However, 'next of kin' could be someone related by marriage, at least according to this definition:
'Although ‘next of kin' is sometimes defined in legislation, it is a common law term which has traditionally meant the closest relative by blood or marriage."

[FWiedner]

A wife is not kin, which is why in many cultures they could not inherit property at the death af a husband unless there was an expressed "will" of the deceased. A wife could potentially pass valuable family heirlooms or property on to the children of another man or to another family entirely. Property in such a case would go to the oldest son, or be distributed among "kinfolk".

Lawyers made wives "next of kin".

[Meeteetse]

If'n ya cain't marry - y'er Kin.

+1
Many may disagree, but "blood" is the deciding factor for me. If you are not blood related then you are a relative by marriage, and even some of those I don't want in the family. . . . .

[Ysabel Kid]

I guess where I was going is a ranking of sorts on the duty one has to family. As they say, "blood is thicker than water". Of course, close blood relations always trump everything else. But given my rather generous definition of "kin" (you'd think I was born in the south 150 years ago! ), a ranking system of sorts is needed. Still, in my mind, if someone is related to me in some form or fashion - by blood or marriage - they rank "consideration" above and beyond the stranger off the street - even if they are a stranger. Of course, friends get plopped somewhere in between "close blood" and "distant kin" - some as close as "close blood"!

It is just harder to define "kin" nowadays to my son, as the family tree has marriages, deaths and remarriages; marriages and divorces and remarriages; non-married with kids and other permutations that never occured to me when I was growing up!

[Pisgah]

>If you go to extended cousins we may all be related. At least by race and country and sometimes farther.


Not "may" be related -- we literally ARE all related. Think about it. You have 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents, etc., etc. Do the math -- go back 40 generations -- say 1000 years -- and grandparents alone number over a million. Now go back another 1,000,000+ years...

No doubt about it whatsoever. We each share SOME common genetic material with every other human being on earth.

[Old Ironsights]

>If you go to extended cousins we may all be related. At least by race and country and sometimes farther.


Not "may" be related -- we literally ARE all related. Think about it. You have 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents, etc., etc. Do the math -- go back 40 generations -- say 1000 years -- and grandparents alone number over a million. Now go back another 1,000,000+ years...

No doubt about it whatsoever. We each share SOME common genetic material with every other human being on earth.

An international group of geneticists studying Y-chromosome data have found that nearly 8 percent of the men living in the region of the former Mongol empire carry y-chromosomes that are nearly identical. That translates to 0.5 percent of the male population in the world, or roughly 16 million descendants living today. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... nghis.html

In Genesis, God appointed Aaron, brother of Moses, as the first priest (Cohen, pl. Cohanim) and stipulated that his sons should inherit this position. About 3,300 years later this tradition continues with Jewish priesthood being designated by strict patrilineal decent. A study conducted by Hammer et al. sought to test the adherence to this tradition and analyze the differences in the frequency of Y haplotypes between Jewish priests and lay people in both Ashkenazi and Sephardic populations.

In the study, 188 unrelated Y chromosomes obtained from Israeli, North American, and British Jews were typed using first, a genetic marker called the Y Alu polymorphic (YAP) insert, and secondly a polymorphic GATA repeat microsatellite called DYS19. Some samples were also typed for a non-Y-chromosome CA-repeat polymorphism, D1S191.

The remarkable results indicate that the purity of the Jewish Cohanim has been relatively well preserved, and even more remarkably that it is observable in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewries regardless of their geographic separation. Six haplotypes were identified among the test subjects. The greatest difference was in the frequency of the YAP in priests compared to lay Jews. A mere 1.5% of the Y chromosomes among priests were YAP+, while it occurs in about 18.4% of lay Jews. There was no significant difference in distribution for the non-Y D1S191 repeat. The same distinctions made between the priesthood and lay Jews were present in both the Sephardic and Ashkenazi populations. This result is consistent with the origin of the priesthood predating the division of the Jewry during the Diaspora.

So it seems that the Cohanim, who comprise around 5% of the world’s 7 million Jewish males, may all be brothers in the ancestral Y chromosome of Aaron. http://home.nc.rr.com/ambiient/site/ychromo.htm

[bogus bill]

You pick your friends, you cant pick your relatives!

[Doc Hudson]

Amici familia ab lectio est

That means:

Friends are the Family you choose.

For the last 30 years of so, I've had little contact with my blood family other than my parents.

The family I keep up with are those friends I've made family.

[Thunder50]

Kin would be blood relatives and related by marriage for the most part(mainly my in-laws and their spouses/kids) My best friend, who just recently died, his boys I consider to be my nephews. Some kin, blood cousins, I haven't had anything to do with them for 20 years and really don't care to change things.

[Old Savage]

I for one do not think everyone on earth is related. Adam and Eve can be dated to approx 4,000 BC. I think the general creation of man significantly predates that.

[Rusty]

I thought about this post this morning as I was reading. I was reading "The Warrior's Path" by L'Amour and he used the phrase "married kin" in the book.

[JerryB]

Rusty that is a real good book, those boys do have a time.
What about "Kissing Kin" ? They are closer than marrying kin.

[505stevec]

I guess where I was going is a ranking of sorts on the duty one has to family. As they say, "blood is thicker than water". Of course, close blood relations always trump everything else. But given my rather generous definition of "kin" (you'd think I was born in the south 150 years ago! ), a ranking system of sorts is needed. Still, in my mind, if someone is related to me in some form or fashion - by blood or marriage - they rank "consideration" above and beyond the stranger off the street - even if they are a stranger. Of course, friends get plopped somewhere in between "close blood" and "distant kin" - some as close as "close blood"!

It is just harder to define "kin" nowadays to my son, as the family tree has marriages, deaths and remarriages; marriages and divorces and remarriages; non-married with kids and other permutations that never occured to me when I was growing up!

I have to agree, I have friends that are much closer than some of my kinfolk. I have friends that would "help bury the body" so to speak but family I would not trust across the street.

[brucew44guns]

I weas recently adding up all the dead relatives, too many to remember almost. So now---I count everybody, who treats me like family, as "kin".

[JReed]

I would have to go with blood. Those that have divorced out of the family no longer count much other then as friends. For example one of my many great aunts was Custers wife is she kin yes because of blood ties it dosnt make him kin ( besides he was a Yankee ). My family is fortunate that we have geneology buffs in several branches of my family so for the french side we can trace back to the mid 1400's in france the Scotch side we can trace back to the 1500's thats a whole lot of branches.