Family matters:are you muttering" Does the family matter?"

just as a warm-up
Here's a famous fifties song:




check out some other youtube versions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXU-ZdmzNmo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeIsxXDyjlc
Or cheat, with full subtitles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BMsSs16BA4


Of course, you all know the basic table:

father/mother/parent
son/daughter/child(ren)or kid  
nephew/niece/-
uncle/aunt/-
-/-/cousin
brother/sister/sibling

BUT

you forget some of the affixes that do the rest, applied in theory, though some are avoided in practice,to any and every of the above!
Gran(d)- for two linear generations, great-gran(d) for three, and keep adding "great"s.
Grandson, grandparent, Greatgreatgrandfather, etc
Great- for two non-lineal generations
Greataunt Ana is in grandparents! generation. This always confused me as a child, it wasn't logical.
 Half- for one common parent
Step- for relationship via new marriage - remember Cinderella's stepmother and ugly step-sisters!
God- for Christening (baptismal) relationships.Remember the famous mafia films with Al pacino and Brando!
 Note. This does not extend to weddings, where the groom has a "best man" and the bride is "given away" (yes! that's the formal expression!) by her father!
Nor Confirmation, when you have "sponsors", a word better known nowadays for sponsorship in other fields, such as support of the arts and advertising etc.
Foster- for relationships created by fostering
blood- the same as in Spanish, rather archaic, maybe because of blood mixing rituals to make blood brothers, etc -  the idea is more usually expressed by the adjectives "natural" or "biological", or the expression "by blood" as opposed to "by marriage" ,"by adoption" etc."Well of course he wasn't my uncle by blood , just by marriage, so all the family disowned him when he was hung fror murder" etc

Also you can subdivide cousins into first, second, and third, etc, or say they are "once/twice/etc removed" (by generations), but most normal people muddle this up.Equally, your cousins'cousins are not your cousins, but for most people they are if the families often foregather.

to be continued