A Little Less Than Kin, A Little More Than Kind

First of all, yes I purposely reworded the quote from Hamlet for my title.  Second of all, this week's topic is about kinship and for the first time since I've started this blog I'm going to deviate from the prompts given in class.  The topic of kinship brings me back to the Anth 200 class I was in last semester.  In the tutorial for that class, we learnt how to draw kinship diagrams.  For those of you who don't know what a kinship diagram looks like I've included a picture below that gives a pretty straight forward defintion of how to draw a kinship diagram (this photo can be found at http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/fundamentals/diagram.gif).  I would like to point out that "ego" is yourself.






I drew mine (in my Anth 200 class), not based on who I considered relatives, but who has been either connected to me from my mom or dad's side through blood, marriage, or sexual indiscretions that led to offspring.  I did this just to see how messed up my family is, and to see who was really related to me and by how much.  Turns out, we could be our own version of  the Springer or Maury show (since we don't really talk to each other/aren't even full blood relatives).  I'm curious as to what other people count as family.  Also, how far down the family tree do you consider relatives?  First cousins or distant cousins?  Only aunts and uncles through blood or through marriage?  If I did a kinship diagram and I took it seriously, I would probably just consider my Dad's brother and his wife and daughter, my Dad's sister, my Dad's mother and father, my Mom's mother, father, and common-law "step-father", and, even though I haven't seen or spoken to my Mom's brother and "brother" since I was little, I would probably include them on the diagram as well.  I really do wish I had one big happy family but you can't pick your family.  You can only learn to live with them or without them.