Daily AncestorStepson
A stepson or stepdaughter is your husband's or wife's child from an earlier marriage, not your own child by birth.
A stepson is the son of your spouse by an earlier marriage or relationship; a stepdaughter is the daughter. Stepchildren were common in households where a widow or widower remarried.
Older usage blurs the lines. Webster's 1828 dictionary defines stepson as a son-in-law, so an early will's son-in-law may be a stepson. In a census, a stepchild listed with a surname different from the head's may carry the name of the mother's earlier husband, a lead worth following.
As seen in a recordRelationship column of the 1880 census
Ransom Ockerby | Step-son | S | 12
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Stepson." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/relationships/stepson. Last checked 2026-10-12.