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Q. In a guardianship order I've found for Onondaga County, NY, in 1825, the guardian is called the nephew of the deceased. Did nephew in that time and place generally mean the son of one's sibling or the son of one's spouse's sibling as it does today?
A. In earlier centuries, nephew sometimes referred to a male or female child of a sibling or spouse's sibling, a male or female grandchild, a cousin or another relative. The habits or preferences of individual clerks and courts may have played a role in determining when nephew took on its current meaning in a given locale.