A lineal or direct descendant, in legal usage, is a blood
relative in a person's direct line of
descent – the
children
A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...
, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. In a legal procedure sense, lineal descent refers to the acquisition of
estate by
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
by parent from grandparent and by child from parent, whereas collateral descent refers to the acquisition of estate or real property by inheritance by sibling from sibling, and cousin from cousin.
Adopted children, for whom
adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...
statutes create the same rights of heirship as
children of the body, come within the meaning of the term "lineal descendants," as used in a statute providing for the non-lapse of a
devise where the devisee predeceases the
testator
A testator () is a person who has written and executed a last will and testament that is in effect at the time of their death. It is any "person who makes a will."Gordon Brown, ''Administration of Wills, Trusts, and Estates'', 3d ed. (2003), p. ...
but leaves lineal descendants.
Among some
Native American tribes in the United States, tribal enrollment can be determined by lineal descent, as opposed to a minimum
blood quantum. Lineal descent means that anyone directly descended from original tribal enrollees could be eligible for tribal enrollment, regardless of how much native blood they have.
The
antonym of ''descendant'' is ''
antecedent''.
Collateral descendant
A collateral or indirect descendant is a term for a relative descended from a person's
sibling
A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the other person. A male sibling is a brother, and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child.
While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised ...
or the sibling of an
ancestor
An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...
, and thus a
niece,
nephew, or younger
cousin
A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle.
More generally, in the kinship system used in the English-speaking world, ...
.
See also
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References
External links
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Kinship and descent
Legal terminology
Native American history
Property law
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