Changes

It appears that the American usage (Merriam-Webster and American Heritage) ignores the order of the marriages, and Gramps also does so, partly because this is simpler, and partly because the relevant dates may not be present in the Gramps database.

==Definition of 'stepfamily'==

Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepfamily] has quite a long discussion around the meaning of stepfamily, including "Children from a stepfamily may live with one biological parent and visit their other biological parent, or they may live with each biological parent for a period of time" and "The traditional and strictest definition of a "stepfamily" is a married couple where one or both members of the couple have pre-existing children who live with them" and "Some people also apply the term to non-custodial relationships, where "stepparent" can refer to the partner of a parent with whom the child does not live.[6] The term is not generally used (but can be in individual cases) to refer to the relationship with an adult child who never lived in the home with the parent's new partner." However, none of these definitions refer to formal dictionary definitions, and indeed it is hard to see how the references actually substantiate the descriptions that are supposedly derived from them. For example "adopting.org" points out that because some children do not legally "reside" with their fathers, government and academic research do not include them and they are ignored and uncounted. however, the context makes it clear that they are talking about stepfamilies, and otherwise why would it be relevant that such people are not counted.

== Previous discussions ==

There have been extensive previous discussions of step-siblings.