Granduncle vs Great Uncle.

Sorry if this is a bit basic.

Where do the terms such as "granduncle", as used by my family tree

myths...

I've always thought of it as possibly old-fashioned, and a straight
alternative.

In my family we used great-great-aunt /uncle from at least mid 20C,
and great-aunt/uncle from a generation earlier, at least.

An ancestress (Irish, 1780) referred in her will to nieces,
great-nieces and a great-grand-niece (according to an early 20C
transcription)..

program, come from? This sounds foreign to me. It would seem to describe
the relationship that I would term as "great uncle". Going back a
generation or two I would find terms such a "great great granduncle" as
being somewhat confusing.

Charani...

Henry Brownlee...

gauche ur droit, Cher?

I think it's an Americanism.

singhals...

I never heard the term Grand-Uncle until a few years ago. I had (and
still have) great-uncles and great-aunts by the truckload, though.
'Course I suppose it could be something Yankee-ish; all my acknowledged
kin live South of the Mason-Dixon.

Father - Uncle
Grandfather - Granduncle
and so on.

Jenny M Benson...

I, too, thinks it is the American style and I have come across it a lot
in the brief period during which I have been interested in genealogy. I
have taken to using it myself because I am frequently referring to
relations from several generations ago and I find it so much less
confusing if all the members of a generation have the same number of
Grands.

lostcooper...

I always heard "great-uncle" - having lived in California for almost 60
years....Bronwen

To us this side of the pond 99.9% of people would use the term "great
uncle" for one's grandfather's brother or brother in law.

One of my great uncles always referred to himself as GUS, ie Great
Uncle Sid.

Henry Brownlee...

singhals...

I canNOT believe you offered me that one!! (GBG) Gauche by ALL means,
Gauche.

Well, I never heard of the term Grand Uncle/Aunt until I started
getting some info from your side of the pond. 8>)

We always used Great Uncle/Aunt for as far back as I remember (that's
way too long!) Whether it is an Americanism or Britishism, Grand
Uncle/Aunt would make sense in order to keep the generations together,
i.e. Grand Uncle being the brother of your Grandfather/Grandmother,
etc.

But I still use Great Uncle, etc. Old-fashioned, ya know!

Having recently come across a great uncle who died during WW I as a
member of the New Zealand occupying force, having taken over the German
colony. How or when he had got to New Zealand or what he was doing out
there I do not know. Anyhow, the description "granduncle" made me

Jenny M Benson...

Not in equestrian circles. Or with reference to the genealogy of many
animals, I believe.

scratch my head.

Eve McLaughlin...

seems to be an American preference, which was occasionally used but is
hopelessly old-fashioned here - means the same thing as the normal
great-aunt.

Certainly the only great aunt of mine I remember I called just that, I
have a feeling that she would have been somewhat surprised to be
addressed as "grandaunt".

Which term is the most commonly used? (I hesitate to ask which is
'correct').

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon

D Marshall...

Pity my poor grand-daughter, she has seven grandmothers.

andrew...

Clever girl. Most can only claim two, by blood.

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon

D Marshall...

She has a complete set of great-grandmothers, two grandmothers and a
step-grandmother. All have to be named and the variants remembered.
Luckily there are fewer surviving grandfathers and great-grandfathers.
Poor kid would never work out which was which if she had the complete
male set as well.
There is another biological great-grandmother and grandfather out there
somewhere. Our whole family has a lot of adoptions, half-adoptions,
unofficial adoptions. Sigh. It's all very confusing.
:)

Ye Old One...

No, she can only have two. She may have others she calls grandmothers
but on two real ones :)

Halmyre...

I've rarely heard the term granduncle - it's always been great-uncle.

It would actually be a useful term to have - then your great-granduncle
would be of the same generation as your great-grandfather.

roy.stockdill...

Surely there are six continents, viz.....

andrew...

Roy -

I always have had problems with any numbers more than the number of toes
on one foot.

Charles Ellson...

No, I won't say it ........ ;-)

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon

Ye Old One...

Did you lose the other foot?

Europe
The Americas (North & South being regarded as one)
Africa
Asia
Australasia or Oceania
Antarctica

Ye Old One...

Correct Roy. Antarctica is not on the Olympic flag because it is not
classed as inhabited.

Americans (US Americans, that is), are either unaware or seem to have
forgotten that America was named after the Italian Amerigo Vespucci,

Graeme Wall...

Apparently there is now some doubt about that, there's a rival contender but
I can't remember who he was or what book I read it in, typical!

Phil C....

Malvary in Ottawa...

I have two studio Christmas photo postcards sent to my grandmother one dated
1913 and one 1915. The inscription on the first "To dear Aunty and Uncle
and Cousin From Nephews and Niece Xmas 1913" and the second "To Aunt, Uncle
and Cousins From The Imps Xmas 1915". Neither my mother (born in 1914) nor
my uncle (born in 1911) had any idea who these children were. I recently
had contact from someone (through Genes Reunited) who is the son of the
oldest child in the picture and was able to identify them all, and then 10
days later I had contact from someone else (through GR) who is the son of
the youngest child in the picture who was able to tell me that there were
two more younger girls.

My 95 year old uncle has now been informed, sadly my mother passed away 18
months ago.

Malvary in Ottawa

Richard Ameryck (various spellings)?
He was Welsh(ish) from Weston-under-Penyard. I've got family from
there so we must be related. Obviously.

who explored South America (but not North)and was the first to realise
he'd discovered a new continent, whereas Columbus to the end of his
days thought he'd landed in Asia when he'd actually fetched up in the
West Indies.

But I expect the people who expressed such rabid views to you were the
same ones who usually complain about mine - i.e. rather insular little
folks living in some one-horse town in Ohio or somewhere who've
probably never even been to the next state, let alone know that there's a
great big world out there that isn't the US of A. Hopefully, as the Internet
continues to grow and expand and more of them find out how to use it,
their education and knowledge will steadily expand in kind. Don't expect
it to happen in the next 50 years or so, though!

Roy Stockdill
Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History:

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about,
and that is not being talked about."
OSCAR WILDE