Daily AncestorAunt
An aunt is the sister of your father or mother, or the wife of your uncle; in older usage Aunt could also be a courtesy title for an older woman.
An aunt is a parent's sister, or by marriage a parent's brother's wife. The 1900 census instructions list aunt among the sample answers for relationship to the head.
Older English also used aunt for any elderly woman, and Aunt as a friendly title for an older woman outside the family survives in many communities. When a diary or letter mentions Aunt Polly, look for other evidence before adding her to the tree as a parent's sister.
As seen in a recordRelationship column of the 1900 census
Aurelia Pinchbeck | Aunt | S | 61
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Aunt." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/relationships/aunt. Last checked 2026-10-12.