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Question:Great Grandmother had two children by Great Grandfather. She divorced him, remarried and had two more children. How are they kin to me if at all?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Great Grandmother had two children by Great Grandfather. She divorced him, remarried and had two more children. How are they kin to me if at all?

They are:
Your grand parent's half brother / half sister.
Your parent's half aunt / half uncle.
Your half great aunt or half great uncle.

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Added later:

Brenda, below me, makes an excellent point. I was speaking strictly as a genealogist. No one but one of us would use the term "half" for anything but a brother or sister, either. Their descendants will be your cousins, but I have never heard anyone say "Half first cousin once removed" except in the bar at the genealogy clubhouse, and that was to settle a bet.

They are blood kin, obviously (given the first answer to your question), but how close were the half-siblings? Were they raised in the same home? Do (did) they consider themselves brothers and sisters? Did they maintain their family relationship, or drift apart? Did their kids keep the family ties? Do you know your cousins from the different families?

I ask this because I come from a split family (mom and dad had three kids; they divorced; mom and step-dad had four more kids, dad and step-mom had six more kids, so I am the oldest of 13 children total, but we weren't all raised by the same set of parents). I am close to my (full) brother and sister, and one half-sister from my father. I keep in contact with six of the other half-siblings, and hardly any contact goes on with the remaining half-siblings.

In many cases, the blood relationship exists, but the kinship itself (actual family ties, attachment, emotion) doesn't really exist.

You and the 1/2 siblings (and descendants) do share a common ancestor (gr grandma), and of course, if you were working backwards, any of them would share that ancestry. If they were inclined to genealogy, it would make sense to get acquainted and share resources, cordially. For example.. they may well have old family photos/ documents to share.
For one family, I organized a reunion, where all the (blood) descendants were 'from' one couple. Along the way, of course, there were deaths and remarriages, so forth. One cousin seemed to spend hours, attempting to identify each desc. in absolute and proper terminology. I got to the point of wanting to tell him to just hush.. if we were not immediate siblings, we all were cousins of some degree. The senior generations were technically cousins, but we respectfully claimed as 'uncles or aunts'. The general focus was on the shared history, and who brought the best casserole.
Sometimes it's good to be technical (I usually am) and sometimes, just enjoy.