Relatives ... Do You Know How And To Whom You Are Related???

There is yet another familiar saying which we’ve all heard that also  addresses this subject, “You choose your friends but not your relatives.”

The American poet. Robert Frost, said “Home is the place, when you go there, they have to take you in.”  Noah Webster of the Webster Dictionary fame said, “Kinship is the quality or state of being in a relationship.”  From early childhood, most of us are familiar with the Doxology which begins, “As it was in the beginning... .”

Basically, home is where we find our relatives, our kin, blood of our blood, and so on and so forth. Regardless of all this, relatives are the people we got “stuck” with at birth...those who must be notified of births, deaths, marriages, funerals and, of course, family reunions. Relatives share ancestors. Relatives may even be of the “shirt-tailed” or “kissing-kin” variety. Did you know that there are laws which prohibit or forbid the marriage of kin?

Due to the advancement of modern technology it has become necessary to resort to legal court decisions to determine many issues which were never dreamed of even fifty years ago; for instance, “Do children born as a result of modern technology [in vitro fertilization, by a surrogate mother, or by artificial insemination] have a legal right to know the background of their biological parents for medical, religious or even social [such as lineage applications] purposes?”

Does kinship really matter? What about a fiancée that says, “I don’t like his family, but as I am not marrying them, it really doesn’t matter, now does it?”

Scientist now know that personality traits may be inherited just as are medical ones. Genome Magazine [Vol.2, Issue 04, p. 51] states, “Every year, an estimated 30,000-60,000 babies are born as a result of sperm donation.”

We know that we each get 50% of our genes from our father and the other 50% from our mother; however, each child of the same couple will receive various genes from each parent but not necessarily the same ones are inherited by a person’s biological sister or brother. Just as hair and eye coloring are determine by genetics, so too are many medical and social issues just now being discovered.

What exactly is genetic testing? According to the same issue of Genome Magazine cited above, “genetic testing maps out a person’s complete DNA profile to inherited abnormalities that may have health implications while genomic testing sequences the DNA of a tumor to identify potential treatment options.”

We acquire a family when we are born. Our father’s side of the family is referred to as our paternal side and our mother’s side of the family is our maternal side. It is also now known that a peculiarity found in female cell structure allows women to only pass one class of genes which are carried by her mitochondrial DNA. This means that each of us, both male and female,

received our mitochondrial DNA from only our mother, and that she received it only from her mother who received it from hers, and etc.  Likewise, each of our fathers can only share their individual Y-DNA with their sons. This means that a male can be tested for both MtDNA and Y-DNA while a female can only be tested for MtDNA.

Exactly what are these two tests? A Y-DNA test covers 37-111 markers depending on the individual test, and varies in price according to the number of markers covered. An MtDNA test offers the choice of either a limited ypervariable region test, or a full sequence test of the entire mitochondrial DNA chromosome.

In May of 2010, Family Tree DNA started an autosomal microarray chip based DNA test which was called Family Finder. Initially the product used an Affymetrix microarray chip, but Family Tree DNA changed to the Illumina OmniExpress chip and for forward compatibility, retested all customers who had results from the Affymetrix chip.

Family Finder also includes a component called myOrigins. This component applies principal component analysis to the same autosomal data to conduct biogeographical analysis [BGA] of the autosomal DNA. The results of this test provide percentages of DNA associated with general regions or specific ethnic groups [Western Europe, Asia, Jewish, Native American, etc.] Unlike other testing companies, Family Tree DNA chose to strip out markers for mendelian medical issues, MtDNA results, and Y-DNA SNP results. Simply put, the Family Finder autosomal test, allows all of the other genetic make up one carries to be found. It works something like the following:

Gene

Y-DNA=male   Autosomal=all others   MtDNA=female

|        ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||      |  

By marriage [meeting all requirements of various state and federal laws], a couple establishes or creates a family which is a legal continuation of their respective kinship lines and enters into regulated society.

Society exercises some control over marriages in that it distinguishes lawful unions, designates a father and legitimizes children. This recognition gives a child a family name, ancestors, acknowledge of kinship connections and legal rights from the very beginning… .

Marriage is considered a legal binding contract whereby one man and one woman enter into a legal contract promising to live together for their lifetime or until the marriage is legally terminated.

Worldwide there are many types of marriage; but, only term’s relating to marriages within in the United States follow:

1.      Ceremonial marriage is a wedding ceremony performed in accordance with the law of the state in which it is performed.

2.      Common law marriage is a private arrangement without a wedding ceremony or observance of legal requirements. Some states do not sanction this form of marriage.

3.      Consensual marriage requires spoken vows confirming the couple’s intent. The difference between a common law marriage and a consensual marriage is that vows are not required in a common law marriage.

4.      Proxy Marriage requires special permission as it is allowed only in unusual circumstances which may keep the couple apart. Most states discourage this practice which allows for substitutes to take the vows for the couple in absentia.

5.      Miscegenation is the name for marriage or cohabitation between people of different races or nationalities. Anti-miscegenation laws have been ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court.

6.      A secret marriage is a marriage that most people aren’t aware of. To publicize a secret marriage is a misdemeanor. This form of marriage is commonly used by police or other governmental agents to escape public attention which would allow vindictive criminals to their families.

It is understood that when a couple marries both will leave their family of orientation [family of one’s parents and relatives] to become a family of procreation [the family created by marriage].  By marriage both spouses acquire a family of affinity [the birth family of one’s spouse].

A child from the prior marriage of either one of the spouses becomes a step-brother or step-sister to the children of the couple’s marriage. Likewise, children who share one biological parent are known as half-brothers or half-sisters.

In the United States today kinship is figured bilaterally which means than an individual is affiliated with and descent is traced through relatives on both the maternal and the paternal sides.

Lineal descent is a descent figured direct or in a straight line from person to ancestor with no intervening link between the ancestor and descendant.

Collateral blood relatives descend from a common antecedent but can neither ascend to nor descend from other collateral relatives. An aunt or uncle is a collateral relation as is a great aunt or great uncle.

There is a story circulating in various parts of the “South” about Fred, a widower, and his only son, Roscoe, who lived with him. The story goes something like this...

Fred dug ginseng roots, raised a little patch of a garden, and collected commodity cheese and dried milk. Jim-Bob, a neighbor two hills over, had a thriving business and Roscoe worked for him. Roscoe didn’t report his wages because his job mostly consisted of carrying hundred-pound sacks of sugar through the woods.

The only women for several miles around belonged to Jim-Bob: his wife, Roxie, and their almost ripe daughter, Trixie. Each day at lunch time, Roxie and Trixie would come down from the house and bring a platter of hot baloney sandwiches along with them for Jim-Bob and Roscoe to eat.

Now, Roscoe knew the business pretty well by the time the still blew up and took Jim-Bob with it. Roscoe quickly wooed and won Roxie, garnering for himself a business, a family, and hot baloney sandwiches served three time a day.

Fred started hanging about, and at night the four of them would sit around, playing cards, and telling ghost stories. One day, Trixie finished turning ripe and Fred was right there to pick her. The two of them hopped into Jim-Bob’s old pickup truck, drove over the state line and got married.

Shortly thereafter both women conceived. In due time, Roxie gave birth to Bubba, and Trixie had Buster.  Roscoe was very happy. The only fly in his ointment was that Fred seemed content to just sit back and let Roscoe support him... all the while eating Roxie’s hot baloney sandwiches.

Remembering the way Jim-Bob had gone, Roscoe determined to make a will and that’s when his life drastically changed. He tried not to think about his situation, for each time he did, he began drinking up his profits. 

“How in the world can I provide for my daddy if I cut my shiftless son-in-law out of my will?” he lamented.  “My daddy is married to my wife’s daughter, therefore he is my son-in-law. My step daughter, Trixie, is my stepmother. She is Roxie’s daughter, but because she is my daddy’s wife, she is also Roxie’s mother-in-law. Trixie is Fred’s wife, but because she’s my daughter, she is also Fred’s granddaughter. Little Bubba is my son, but because he is my stepmother’s brother, he is also my uncle - I’m my own son’s nephew.

Little Buster is my wife’s grandson, so he is my grandson, too, but because he is my daddy’s boy, he is also my brother. Because he is my brother, he is Bubba’s uncle – so my grandson is my son’s uncle. Bubba is Trixie’s brother, so he is Buster’s uncle. Both of them thar little boys are each other’s uncle. That makes Trixie Bubbas sister, grandmother, and great aunt.”

Roscoe’s thoughts continued, “Fred is my daddy, and Bubba is my son, so Fred is Bubba’s granddaddy; Fred is married to Bubba’s sister, so he is Bubba’s brother-in-law. Trixie is Fred’s wife, so she is Bubba’s grandmother. That makes Roxie Bubba’s great-grandmother, as well as

his momma. If that little boy’s mother is also his great grandmother, then I have to be his great grandfather. And because I am my son’s great granddaddy, that makes me my own grandpa. Can I really be my own grandpa?”

Roscoe scratched his head, ruminated a little, and went on, “Let me look at this from another direction. Buster is my brother and Roxie is his grandmother, so I am my brother’s granddaddy. Fred is my daddy, so that makes him Buster’s great-granddaddy, too. And if my daddy is also my great granddaddy, then I just have to be my own grandpa. Yep, that is what I am, my own grandpa.”

Be forewarned, it’s just exactly  this sort of  “keg of worms” that is the stuff of which kinship is made and this is exactly why laws have been enacted to protect those who are unable to help themselves... .  Just ask any first year law student ...it seems that they always cut their teeth on just such happenings.