A Southern Family is a curious thing. We are not made up of just blood relatives. In fact, there is the common saying of "I have blood that ain't family and family that ain't blood." I know some of you might know what that means, but others don't. It literally means what it says. Just because you have a genetic connection to someone doesn't mean they are family and care about you. Likewise, there are those you will have no blood or genetic connection to that will be there for you no matter what. They are the family you make in life.
Family trees in the south are so convoluted that it almost takes a southern mind to follow a relationship from one end of the thread to the other. If I were to say that was my ex-husband's ex-wife's daughter's cousin's daughter's boyfriend, some might be able to follow the relationship. Most of them aren't that simple though. It's the test of a true Southerner to be able to follow the most convoluted relationship from one end of the description to the other. Realizing there is no blood tie between me and the girlfriend at the end of that description is the beginning of understanding a Southern Family Tree.
Just because you are blood related to someone, doesn't mean they are going to treat you like family is supposed to. Family is supposed to be there for you, have your back no matter what. There are times when you get treated so poorly by blood relatives you have to cut them out of your family tree. But there is hope. In a Southern Family, you can also graft in branches to your tree for people that have earned a place in your heart as family. These are the people that call your parents "Mom" and "Dad" and vice versa. They may even "adopt" your family and call them aunt and uncle or grams and gramps.
To really understand a Southern Family, you have to live it, experience it. It's rewarding, and it will gain you a support network that will last your entire life. And really, would take more than the space I have here to explain it.
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