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KITH AND KIN 



Alexander Graham Bell 

 Washington, D. C. 



IX DKALIXG with ^H'lu-aloRical 

 subjects I am nuich surprised at 

 the p()\erty of the luiglish hm- 

 giiage in words expressi\e of relation- 

 ship. 



We ha\e no term to express gener- 

 ally the relation of one member of a 

 family to another irrespective of sex. 

 We speak of "brothers and sisters" 

 but have no common term for the 

 relationship intended, unless the rather 

 clumsy word "siblings" recently pro- 

 posed should become generally 

 adopted. 



\Ve ha\e no general term, irrespec- 

 U\c of sex, for the relationship indi- 

 cated b\- the words "uncle and aunt," 

 nor haw we an>' oilu-r word than 

 "cousin" to express collateral relation- 

 ship, and we use the term in the most 

 \ague wa\'. 



It is surely ach'isabk-. in dealing with 

 genealogical subjects, to adopt a ter- 

 minology' that shall be clear, distinct 

 and unambiguous. 



I ha\e hitherto emplo\-ed a ]>lan of 

 designating the ancestf)rs of an iiuli- 

 \idual b\' lunnbers (2, >?, 4, 5, 6, etc.), 

 even numbers representing males and 

 odd nimibers females (see Joirxal of 

 Hkkkditv for Ma\- 1921). While this 

 method meets the wants of a scien- 

 tific classification of ancestr>-, it does 

 not fulfil the need for an ordinary ter- 

 minology. 



We often allude to our "kith and 

 kin." We all ha\e a pret(\ delmite 

 idea of what we mean l)\- "kin," — • 

 relationshij) through a conunon ances- 

 tor, our own kindred, oiu' blood rela- 

 tives; but what do we lui-an b\- "kith.''" 

 The word by itself is obsolete. Web- 

 ster defmes it as "ac(|uaintance, inti- 

 mate acquaintance and relationship." 



I think it would be a good plan to 

 rc\ive the term "kith" and gi\e it the 

 special meaning f)f relationship through 

 a conunon deMcndanl . 



Kin: — Persons who have a common 

 ancestor are kin. 



Kith: — Persons who huxc a common 

 descendant would be kith. 



The following diagrams illustrate the 

 proposed terminology. 



KIN (Fig. 1) 



Kin: — All the descendants of the 

 propositus P in the above diagram are 

 kin to one another, a and b are first kin, 

 c and d are second kin, e and /are third 

 kin, and so on. 



Tnder this terminolog>- the members 

 of a family (brothers and sisters) are 

 first kin to one another by \irtue of the 

 possession of a common parent (either 

 lather or mother). Where the broth- 

 ers or sisters, (a b) have the same 

 father and mother they are doubly 

 first kin to one another: or, perhaps, it 

 would be better to sa\- they are full kin, 

 because all of their ancestors are the 

 same in each case. 



KITH (Kig. 2) 



Kith: .\ll ihc ancestors of the 

 propositus /' in iliis second diagram 

 .iri' kith to one another, d and h are 



MA 



