CONSANGUINITY. The relationship that exists between all the different people who come from the same tribe or from common ancestors. Vaughan, 322, 329; 2 bl.com. 202 toull. Dr. Civ. Fr. liv. 3, vol. 1, chap. n 115 2 Bouv.
Inst. n. 1955, et seq. 2. Some of the blood of the common ancestor flows through the veins of all his descendants, and although it is mixed with the blood that flows from many other families, it still forms the kinship or blood alliance between two of the individuals. This relationship by blood is of two types, linear and collateral. 3. Linear inbreeding is the relationship that exists between persons, if they descend from each other, as between the son and the father or grandfather, and therefore upwards in a direct ascending line; and between father and son, or grandson, and so on in direct descending line.
Each generation in this direct course has a degree and calculates in ascending or descending line. As this is the natural way of calculating degrees of linear inbreeding, it has been adopted by civil law, canon law and common law. 4. Collateral inbreeding is the relationship that exists between people descended from the same common ancestor but not from each other. It is important to constitute this relationship whether they come from the same root or common trunk, but in different branches. The way degrees are calculated is to discover the common ancestor, to start with it to calculate downwards, and the degree that the two people or the furthest from them are distant from the ancestor is the degree of kinship that exists between them. For example, two brothers are related to each other in the first degree, because from the Father to each of them is a degree. An uncle and a nephew are related to each other in the second degree because the nephew is two degrees away from the common ancestor and the rule of calculation is extended to the furthest degrees from the collateral relationship. This is the type of calculation in general law and canon law.
The method of calculation by civil law consists in starting with one of the persons concerned and counting up to the other person to the common ancestor, then downwards, calling it a degree for each person, both ascending and descending, and the degrees that they are separated from each other are the degrees, in which they are related. Thus, from a nephew to his father is a degree; to the grandfather, two degrees, then to the uncle, three; which indicates the relationship. 5. The following table, in which the letters in Roman numerals express the degrees of civil law and those in Arabic numerals at the bottom, those of the common law, will fully illustrate the subject. The degree of relationship is important because the law generally does not recognize the relationships of the relationship beyond the sixth degree. This means, for example, that people who are bound by a more distant relationship between them have no legitimate claim to follow the other. In most jurisdictions, laws have been enacted to eliminate historical differences between blood relatives and those who are bound only by marriage or adoption. “There is no blood relationship between a son-in-law and a step-parent, but only the relationship that a spouse has because of marriage with blood relatives of the other, known as affinity.” As with consanguinities, it is also possible to distinguish different lineages and degrees in relationships through marriage. Specifically, in the lineage and extent to which a person is a relative of one of the spouses, he or she is a step-parent of the other spouse (for example, the son-in-law and mother-in-law are related to each other by marriage in the direct line of the first degree).
Subscribe to America`s largest dictionary and get thousands of additional definitions and advanced search – ad-free! inbreeding; the relationship of people descended from the same ancestor. “Blood relative.” dictionary Merriam-Webster.com, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blood%20relative. Retrieved 1 October 2022. Consanguinity is not the same as affinity, which is a close relationship based on marriage rather than common ancestry. Consanguinity is the foundation of laws that govern issues such as the rules of ancestry and distribution of property, the degree of relationship between which marriage is prohibited under incest laws, and a basis for determining who is allowed to serve as a witness. Linear inbreeding is the direct line relationship – for example, between the parent, child and grandparent. It can be determined either upwards – as in the case of the son, father, grandfather – or downwards – as in the case of son, grandson, great-grandson. This distinction is relevant for calculating the degree of the relationship itself.