Brother in law and uncle
 

In the late 1600s/early 1700s were these terms used to mean anything other than:

BIL - husband of your sister/sister in law or brother of your wife

uncle - brother of a parent?

I'm going through wills to work out relationships and need to know I'm covering all potential bases.

Brother-in-law was also used for what we call stepbrother.

And uncle could be used to mean any older male relative. Also of course could be spouse's uncle.

Thanks. I forgot the spouse's uncle when writing this.

Any older male relative might throw a spanner in the works.

Step-brother, or sister, might well be another issue I'm having with this family. The transcripts don't always record widow/er and the wills I've seen so far seem to gloss over previous marriages and assume you know the situation.

My favourite is "brother of the half blood", it's worth its' weight in gold.

I like that Glen. I just need to work out who I can say it to. :)

Shades of Harry Potter.
Niece and nephew were also used to describe any younger relatives, not just in our idea of the terms.

I have a will like that - over 40 bequests to individual people with scant details about them - I guess his solicitors had more information on each person, like where they were living, but the will itself gave few clues.

The one I liked best was "the son of Nancy Grives, born before her marriage".

You had to know who Nancy was, and before her marriage, and then work out what his name might have been. Not easy as her maiden surname was not uncommon. I have never been sure whether the testator was acknowledging an illegitimate child in a roundabout way. He did acknowledge another child without naming their relationship (just left her more money than the others).