Question

[maryminga]

Geoffers, you've been so kind in helping me. I have a question. Something I don't understand. You have, for example, listed in some information you sent me Cecilia Daniels, daur-in-law, 9, bn Witton. Here in the states, when we list someone as a daughter-in-law it's usually an adult married to a son. What does that mean in England? She's 9 years old, not married, so I'm a little confused.

[tommy166]

Yes, generally, the term daughter-in-law refers to wife of a son, but in earlier times it very often referred to what we would now call step daughter, But there seems to be no consistency in this.

[Geoffers]

You have to a certain extent to ignore relationships as they are described these days. 'In-Laws' has already been covered in the previous reply (I have also seen grandparents records as 'in-laws').

In addition to this, cousins can just refer to some (often distant) family connection somewhere, not necessarily the son or daughter of an uncle/aunt.

Census returns also list children as sons/daughters when in fact they are grandchildren. It's one of the reasons why you shouldn't just use census returns as a sole source to build up a family history.

Geoffers