Blood relation questions describe family links in words. Draw a small family tree as you read, marking gender (+ male, − female) and generation levels.
1Key relations
Father's or mother's brother: uncle; their sister: aunt
Brother's or sister's son: nephew; daughter: niece
Spouse's brother or sister's husband: brother-in-law
'My (paternal) grandfather's only son' is my father; 'the only daughter of my father' is the speaker herself if the speaker is female
If gender is not given, the answer may be 'cannot be determined'
2Method
Start from the last person named and work backwards
Keep generations on separate rows of your diagram
For coded relations (A + B, A × B), decode one symbol at a time