Volume 1 — RELATIONSHIP.

RELATIONSHIP.

In old wills and other old documents the word cousin is sometimes used for nephew, and thus many errors may occur in tracing out genealogies. Many curious cases of relationship will be found to exist by those that investigate the descent of families, some of which cannot be described by the terms we now use to designate consanguinity. It is surprising, that among the many words that have been coined, some new terms have not come into use as substitutes for the awkward way we now have of naming some of our relatives; such as great-great-great grandfather, great-great-great-uncle, &c. The following curious case was taken from a newspaper; whether the account is correct or not, the reader may see that it may be true.

"A man can be his own grandfather.

"A widow and her daughter-in-law and a man and his son—the widow married the son, the daughter the father; the widow was mother to her husband's father and grandmother to her husband; they had a son to whom she was great-grandmother. Now as the son of a great-grandmother must be either a grandfather or great-uncle, the boy must be one or the other. This was the case of a boy in Connecticut."