Category talk:English families

Who is a family member?
There needs to be consistency as to when someone is considered a family member. This seems to be clear as far as it goes to surname (from the father) and wives. But we should probably stop there, since if we include the mother's family these cats will grow out of all proportion. For example, we currently have Lettice Knollys and her sister Elizabeth Knollys in the Carey family cat., but not their brother William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury. Likewise, Mary Seymour is in the Parr family cat. Should we include Sir Philip Sidney into the Dudley family then, especially as he wrote "my chiefest pride it is to be a Dudley"? Well, probably not. We need consistency on this. Buchraeumer (talk) 12:42, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

I have no technical knowledge on genealogy etc., but I think the first line of Family name may contain an answer for our problem: "A family name (in Western contexts often referred to as a last name) is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs." (my italics). The key point seems to be that England belonged/belongs to a patrilineal culture. Buchraeumer (talk) 14:09, 7 March 2011 (UTC)