from Jackie Smith Arnold’s Kinship: It’s All Relative (2nd ed. Baltimore: Genealogy Publishing, Inc.)
KINSHIP
Agnatic: regarding the father’s side of the family; Patrilineal or Paternal
Clan: small patriarchal (agnatic) units
Cognate: regarding the mother’s side of the family; in times when the father could not be determined, birth was more important; also called Matrilineal or Maternal.
Endogamy: breeding within clan or tribe
Exogamy: breeding outside clan or tribe
Outbreeding: new blood in clan or tribe
Phratrics: kinship alliances within clan or tribe
Pedigree: register or list of genealogy
Sib or Sept: small cohesive group within phratry by which descendants are referred; sometimes “married” or “maiden” name
Tribes: groups of Clans
(here Arnold lists ten types of marriages, including Monogamy and Polygamy)
RELATIONSHIPS
Bilateral kinship: affiliation to both Agnatic and Cognate lines
Collateral kinship: sideways relationship by marriage, not blood
Fictive kinship: unrelated by blood or collateral kinship, but considered part of the family
Foundling: child deserted by parents
Immediate: parental relationship to child
Mediate: grandparent to grandchild
Lineal ascent: to go backwards in genealogical time
Lineal descent: to go forward in genealogical time
Unilineal descent: using only mother or father to trace kinship
ORIENTATION
Aunt: sister of parent; archaic colloquial reference to a prostitute otherwise
Consanquinity: degree of relationship used to determine kinship where no estate will is left
Cousin: share common grandparents
Second cousin: share great-grandparents; add a number for children of same,i.e. Third cousin, etc.
Cross cousin: first cousin
Double first cousin: parallel or ortho cousins; descendants of a brother and sister who marry a sister and brother, which sometimes happened years ago with lack of transportation, social mobility, or limited gene pool
Grand aunt/ uncle: siblings of grandparents
Great-grand relative: reference to additional generation, etc.
Removed: persons/ generation down, i.e. your first cousin’s child would be your cousin Once removed; add a number for each generation; still always cousins laterally in same generation
Siblings German: anyone with the same parents
FAMILIES OF AFFINITY
In-laws: a spouse’s family; not carried to their extensions, however