Collateral (kinship)

Collateral is a term used in kinship to describe kin, or lines of kin, that are not in a direct line of descent from an individual.^[1] Examples of collateral relatives include siblings of parents or grandparents and their descendants (uncles, aunts, and cousins).^[2] Collateral descent is contrasted with lineal descent: those related directly by a line of descent such as the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. of an individual. Though both forms are consanguineal (blood relations), collaterals are neither ancestors nor descendants of a given person.^[3] In legal terminology, 'Collateral descendant' refers to relatives descended from a sibling of an ancestor, and thus a niece, nephew, or cousin.^[4]

See also

• Lineal descent
• Bilateral descent
• Kinship
• Genealogy
• Rota system (collateral succession)
• Agnatic seniority