Hi Ted, Polly and everybody, Our ancestors when referring to a some relatives in everyday conversation would have very probably described the relationship rather than use a single word definition. For example (just as we do today) they might say "the wife's brother" or "my sister's son" or "my daughter's husband." The difference being that today if called upon we can use the correct terminology to define each of our relatives. Most working class people rarely had cause to write and many signed their own name with a cross and the only time they had to go through the inconvenience of coming up with unfamiliar words would be every ten years for the census. Like everyone else, I have found that stepchildren were often entered on the census as son-in-law or daughter-in-law. This of course was an inaccurate use of the term but it is easy to understand the heads of household's reasoning. After all if they knew that the wife's father was the father in-law and the wife's brother was a brother-in-law then surely the wife's son was a son-in-law. Many heads of household just listed the step children under their own surname and entered "son" or "daughter." And the uncertainty in applying the correct term did not stop at stepchildren. In my own tree I have a genuine daughter-in-law simply listed as "son's wife" and the grandchildren listed as "son's daughter" or "son's son." In the case of another extended family, the son's children are listed correctly as grandson/granddaughter but in the same household the daughter's children have been listed as nephew and niece. My apologies if the general content of this email arrives twice to the list. I did post a very similar message this morning but it seems to have disappeared. Best wishes, Chris