Happy Families is a traditional British card game usually with a specially made set of picture cards, featuring illustrations of fictional families of four, most often based on

occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

types. The object of the game is to collect complete families, and the game is similar to

Go Fish Go Fish or Fish is a card game usually played by two to five players,
although it can be played wi ...

and

Quartets In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

. In Germany and Austria, the game is known as Quartett or Ablegspiel (in Upper Austria and Styria) and is not restricted to sets of four people, but covers other topics such as farm animals or tractors. The game can also be adapted for use with an ordinary set of

playing cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

Gameplay

The player whose turn it is asks another player for a specific card: the asking player must hold a card of the same family. If the asked player has the card, they must give it to the requester, and the requester then takes another turn. If the asked player does not have the card, they say "not at home" and it becomes the asked player's turn. When a player completes a family they place it face-down in front of them. Play continues in this way until no families are separated among different players. The player with the most completed families wins.

Development

The game was devised by John Jaques Jr. who is also credited with popularizing

tiddlywinks Tiddlywinks is a game played on a flat felt mat with sets of small discs called "winks", a pot, which is the target, and a collection of squidgers, which are also discs. Players use a "squidger" (nowadays made of plastic) to shoot a wink in ...

, ludo and snakes and ladders, and first published before the

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...

of 1851. Cards following Jaques's original designs, with

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

illustrations possibly by Sir

John Tenniel Sir John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914)Johnson, Lewis (2003), "Tenniel, John", ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2016. was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and poli ...

(there was no official credit), are still being made.

Family members

The names of the family members are structured as follows, where X stands for a surname and Y for an occupation. * Mr X the Y * Mrs X the Y's Wife * Master X the Y's Son * Miss X the Y's Daughter The eleven families in Jaques' original edition were:

References

{{Children's card games 19th-century card games Dedicated deck card games Card games for children Quartet group

Gameplay

Development

Family members

See also

References