Family in Europe History - Coursework Example

However, kinship ties were also important to people who were poor. They kept up connections with family in the mother country when they traveled abroad for work and even when slaves were separated from each other. Kinship was thus important as a last means of sustenance when things went bad or as a responsibility for those who had done well. Among the lower levels of society, kinship ties seem to have been traced only about as far as they are traced today, from the grandparents down through the parents, aunts and uncles to the children – the siblings and first cousins of the nuclear group.

Beyond that, or beyond the village in which they were born, most people tended to forget their kinship ties unless it was to some grand house elsewhere. Much of the importance of kinship at this level was determined by how to disperse the property following death and who should be invited to important social occasions such as weddings and funerals. Blood lines were important because they suggested an unbreakable link backwards into the distant past of the family. Those who shared the same blood could not deny kinship with others of the same line.

This carried weight in that noble blood, once noble, would remain noble even if family circumstances brought them low. Blood linkages were recognized in terms of inheritance and in social practices, such as the passing down of the family name. Women often kept track of their bloodline as well, perhaps more so because of the need for her to relinquish her family name and home upon marriage. This was also more true in areas where lineages had been more traced through the female line in the distant past.

However, marriage ties were also important because they were able to forge desired connections between family. Sometimes they took the place of blood ties such as when a sonless farmer’s daughter married and the resulting son-in-law gained the status of a true-born son to inherit the family lands.