In my experience (immediate ancestors in Georgia), my grandfather's sister was great aunt Effie. In common spoken and written usage, no surname would have been mentioned. Moreover, we don't normally specify that an aunt or uncle achieved that status by marriage. Now, we each have four grandparents. But, we have eight great grandparents, sixteen great great grandparents. If all of those folks have sisters (or brothers who married), it becomes increasingly likely that there will be duplicate Marys, Effies, Janes, and so on. Thus, in common usage, the parallel with grandparents tends to break down because "great great great[or grand] aunt Effie" may not denote a specific person. Of course, the same thing may occur with parents, grandparents, and so on. But, it would likely take more generations. Even in the absence of duplicate Christian (or given names) in the same generation, the average person would be unduly taxed when asked to identify "great great great[or grand] aunt Mary". Parallel constructions can be pushed too far. [In addition, speaking of one's grand aunt or uncle sounds a bit pompous to my ear.] Best wishes, Bob -- Member: NGS, NCGS, PGN, Association of Professional Genealogists Address for professional research requests: metaq1@mms.net Web page: http://ncgen.mms.net/