Relationship Question

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tbottegal
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Relationship Question

Post by tbottegal »

If a man has children with two different wives, the children are !/2 brothers and sisters.

What if the two wives are sisters? The children would be closer than 1/2 - what is the term used for this?

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VaDeb
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Re: Relationship Question

Post by VaDeb »

Interesting question. I actually have the situation you described in a family. I use family tree maker. When using the relationship calculator it only says the two children are half sisters.

But, if the wives were sisters the children would also be cousins. Correct?

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tbottegal
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Re: Relationship Question

Post by tbottegal »

VaDeb wrote:Interesting question. I actually have the situation you described in a family. I use family tree maker. When using the relationship calculator it only says the two children are half sisters.

But, if the wives were sisters the children would also be cousins. Correct?

Debbie
Hmmmm...

In my case it happened with my greatgrandfather. When his first wife died, he married her sister.

So which are genetically closer, 1/2 sisters or cousins? I guess the resulting relationship would be closer than either one.
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Re: Relationship Question

Post by nuccia »

Good question.

definitely half sisters...Maybe half cousins???

Is there such a thing? :?
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tbottegal
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Re: Relationship Question

Post by tbottegal »

nuccia wrote:Good question.

definitely half sisters...Maybe half cousins???

Is there such a thing? :?
Well, we know that 1/2 sisters are not as closely related as sisters.

So, I guess that 1/2 cousins would be farther apart than cousins. In this case they should be closer together than cousins, not farther apart. (Can you actually have half cousins? I suppose if the parents who were related happened to be half sisters or half brothers, that would make their children half cousins. Just guessing here.)

They would also be closer than 1/2 sisters: 1/2 sisters would each have one parent in common with the other parent not related (at least very distant).

This situation:

- each sister has the same father
- the sister's mothers are also sisters
jcsm400
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Re: Relationship Question

Post by jcsm400 »

I think they are consider only half siblings

Even though the 2nd wife was the aunt to her sister's childrens, that doesn't make her children by her late sister's husband, cousins to her sister's children.

Make sense?



Terms

HALF-COUSINS:
* A half-1st cousin is the child of your parent's half-sibling (your half-Aunt/Uncle).
* A half-2nd cousin is the grandchild of your grandparent's half-sibling (your half-grandaunt/uncle), etc.


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raymo
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Re: Relationship Question

Post by raymo »

They would still be half sisters, even though they'd have arguably more genetic material - DNA - in common since their mothers were sisters.

But I believe that legally, they're still half sisters,as they share the same father, but have different mothers...just as in any other case with the same description.
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Re: Relationship Question

Post by Esperanza »

My stepmother was also my birth mother's sister...

I do have a half brother... but always regarded him as a full brother either way... :wink:
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