More on the great versus grand issue
Nearly six years ago, The Legal Genealogist definitively resolved the question of whether the child of a niece of nephew would be a grandniece or grandnephew or a great niece or great nephew.
Definitively.
Snort.
Because the answer, of course, is yes.
Both are technically correct: Merriam-Webster defines “great-nephew” as “grandnephew,” giving a first usage year of 1580,1 and defines “grandnephew” as “a grandson of one’s brother or sister” giving a first usage year of 1596.2 My own family tends to use great niece and great nephew.3
But it’s when you go on beyond great and grand that you hit the issues. As reader Pat found when she was trying to figure out what to call the next generation: the child of that great or grand nephew.
And the answer really makes it clear why genealogists in general have tried to get recalcitrants like my family to standardize the usage. Because it all fits together if you use grand and not great:
It works just as well going up the generations: a child has a parent, a grandparent and a great grandparent in the direct line, and an aunt/uncle, a grandaunt/uncle and a great grandaunt/uncle in the collateral line.
So — on beyond great and grand, the grandchild of a niece or nephew is a great grandniece or great grandnephew.
Just don’t tell my family that the generation in between isn’t the greatest.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “On beyond great and grand,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 1 Feb 2021).
SOURCES
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ : accessed 1 Feb 2021), “great-nephew.” ↩
- Ibid., “grandnephew.” ↩
- See Judy G. Russell, “Great versus grand,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 25 Feb 2015 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 1 Feb 2021). ↩
I’ve always felt the grand/great usage should be more standardized. I much prefer the generationally consistent use of grand-aunt/uncle to describe a sibling of my grandparent, rather than great-aunt/uncle. But we all know what happens with “standards,” especially in genealogy.
Hi Judy- I’m so glad you wrote this. I never knew why my aunt’s mother would be called my great-aunt!
Glad you found it helpful!
(Being first doesn’t make it correct.) It’s just an alternate usage, similar to an ‘alternate fact’, regardless and irregardless. (see Merriam Webster) 😉
Obviously this will do nothing to change the authors who write about someone’s great-aunt leaving him a nice bequest (I am partial to British mysteries which hinge on inheritance questions).
I’ll have to remember that if a generation is a great-or-grand in family usage, the next generation gets both “great” AND “grand”, and from then on it’s “great” all the way up (or down).