What relation would my great-uncle's brother be to me?

August 4, 2020 2:43 AM

I'm trying to get this straight in my head and there's no-one else around to ask. Can anyone help, please? Thanks.
posted by Paul Slade to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

I think that your great uncle’s brother is also your great uncle, unless he is actually your great grandfather.
posted by unreasonable at 2:50 AM on August 4, 2020 [17 favorites]

Or not really related at all, if your great-uncle is a great-uncle by marriage.
posted by scorbet at 2:52 AM on August 4, 2020 [7 favorites]

Your great uncle is your grandparent's (not great-grandparent's) sibling. His brother could be either your grandfather, or another great-uncle.
posted by spielzebub at 2:53 AM on August 4, 2020 [4 favorites]

Agree with both of the above - if your uncle is your parent's sibling, their brother is also your uncle. If your uncle is married to your parent's sibling, then the uncle's brother is your parent's sibling's brother-in-law.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:54 AM on August 4, 2020

If this is a great-uncle by marriage - that is, your great-aunt is the sister of your grandparent, and the great-uncle in question is married to her - then his brother is your great-aunt's brother-in-law. I don't think we have words for that person's relationship to you.

My brother is married. His wife is my sister-in-law. They would be aunt and uncle to my children, great-aunt and great-uncle to my grandchildren. Her brother is equivalent to the person you're asking about. He's my brother's brother-in-law - but to the best of my knowledge, we don't have a word for his relationship to me, or to any children I might have, or to any children *they* might have. The answers to this Stack Exchange question bear that out.

(If this is a great-uncle by blood, then as others have said, his brother is either another great-uncle or your grandfather.)
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:12 AM on August 4, 2020 [2 favorites]

I am not a great-uncle, but I am a great-aunt; my sister has grandchildren. My sister has 2 sisters, me and my other sister. We are both great-aunts to those grandchildren. So, yes, Junior's great-aunt Janet has 2 sisters, one of whom is his other great-aunt and one of whom is his Nana.
posted by JanetLand at 5:25 AM on August 4, 2020

The only detail that I'll add is that if this is a relation by marriage, calling him your great uncle in spite of no close blood kinship is a perfectly valid choice if you wish to do so. My own family is a tangle of second marriages, steps and halves and in-laws, and we all mostly use "cousin" for someone we see at family gatherings who is of our generation, "aunt/uncle" if they're one generation ahead, and "great-aunt/uncle" for two. We've found that every added qualification adds a layer of separation; we only talk about step-grandfathers or uncles-by-marriage if someone is genuinely confused and needs clarification on who is whose child, or if that person really just stepped in some social doo-doo and we're clarifying that we aren't claiming them as ours.
posted by tchemgrrl at 9:08 PM on August 4, 2020 [1 favorite]