Members of the Extended Family

Members of an extended family are related by blood, marriage, or adoption. The extended family involves people from the 1st generation to the 4th generation as long as they are still alive.

Note: A child and his or her siblings and cousins make one generation, parents and their siblings form the next, grandparents and their siblings form the third generation, and so on.

The extended family members include:

1. Great grandparents
2. Grandparents
3. Parents
4. Children
5. Uncles
6. Aunts
7. Cousins
8. Nieces
9. Nephews
10. In-laws

The Great Grandparents: These are the people who gave birth to the parent’s parents. They can be related to the children either through the father (paternal) or mother (maternal). They are the 4th generation to the children.

Grandparents: These are the direct parents of parents of the children. They gave birth to either the father or mother of the child. They are of the 3rd generation to the child.

Parents: These are the people who gave birth to the child. The parents are the father and mother of the child and they are of the 2nd generation to the child.

Children: These are the boys or girls that the parents gave birth to and they are of the present or direct generation. i.e first generation.

Uncles: These are the brothers of the father and/or mother, they become uncles to the children.

Aunts: These are the sisters of either the father and/or mother, they become aunties to the children.

Cousins: These are the children of our uncles or aunts, that is the children of our parents’ brothers and/or sisters. The children of the same siblings refer to each other as cousins.

Nieces: The daughter of one’s brother or sister is referred to as a niece.

Nephew: The son of one’s brother or sister is referred to as a nephew.

Inlaw: This is the relationship between two different families that are related by marriage. The mother of one’s husband or wife is referred to as the mother-in-law and the father of one’s husband or wife is referred to as the father-in-law.