Last week, my sister got married. It was an incredible event, complete with a sunset cruise on a beautiful schooner. I am very happy for my sister and her husband, and I really enjoyed visiting with them and meeting his family for the first time.
As is the case with any wedding, the uniting of two families brings about family history related discussion aplenty. One discussion that I remember has to do with kinship terms, more specifically how the two totally adorable ring bearers are now related as a result of the wedding. One of the ring bearers is my son, Dylan, who will be three years old next week. The other ring bearer is my sister’s husband’s sister’s son, who is four years old. So, how are they now related? Someone suggested that perhaps they are cousins – in – law. I looked into that, and there is no such thing as a cousin – in – law. The boys do not share an ancestor, so they are not at all related.
I can’t help but wonder what the situation looks like from Dylan and Keegan’s points of view. Dylan knows that he has an Auntie Laura, and an Uncle Mike. Since my sister was in a serious relationship with Mike at the time that Dylan was born, we had simply always referred to him as Uncle Mike. Likewise, Keegan, the other ring bearer, knows the now happily married couple as his aunt and uncle. I am sure that each of the boys had been told about the other, but at their age people may as well not exist until they actually see them in person. The night before the wedding, the boys met at the wedding rehearsal. I was not at the rehearsal, because I was helping with some wedding – related errands before the rehearsal dinner, but from what my parents said the boys befriended each other instantly.
Since weddings are also a great source of family history stories, the boys have already made a contribution in that respect. The day of the wedding, my family had pictures taken at a resort near the house that we were staying at. During the photo shoot, Dylan filled the pockets of his suit pants with rocks. Later that day, as the boys began leading the wedding procession down the dock to the schooner, Dylan stopped walking for a moment. Keegan stopped too, to see what Dylan was doing. Dylan reached into his pockets and pulled out the rocks. He showed them to Keegan, and then put them away. The boys continued on down the dock without incident. Everyone thought that it was very funny, and I wonder whether the photographers or the videographer captured that moment for posterity.
