We Are Family! – A Study of Family Trees and Inter-Marriage of Pure-Blood Families

By Casey

Abstract: I start out with my inspiration, and go on to talk about the Black family tree. I get into the Weasley’s connection to the Blacks and how that works out on a tree. Then I get into the fact that all pure-bloods are related, and if it would be possible to map out the pure-blood families on a tree. I go into how the Blacks are near extinction, and I give scenarios explaining possible ways the female line would continue. I then switch over to the favorable views of being a blood-traitor, and how blood-traitors are better off for survival in the long run, and then I close up my essay.

I spend a lot of my free time lost in thought, (and I will admit, I consider science class free time. . .) and Tuesday was no different. I was on the computer, looking at the page on Harry Potter Wikia about Gamp’s Elemental Law of Transfiguration in order to prove to my friend that you can’t conjure food out of thin air, when I got sidetracked and decided to take a look at some Pure-blood family trees. I started by searching The Black Family, and I found a detailed family tree that started all the way back with the age of Phineas Nigellus Black, a former headmaster of Hogwarts around the turn of the century (1800-1900). I was fascinated, for the tree followed the Black Family all the way down to Harry Potter, our favorite wizard. Seeing the Black Family Tree made me wonder, “What if someone were to make a family tree that connected all pure-blood wizards?” And so, with my best knowledge, (and lots of help from Harry Potter Wikia) I attempted to create a family tree with all known information linking JKR’s beloved characters.

On my tree currently, I have added the Weasley Family by adding Ginny’s marriage to Harry, as well as showing Arthur as the son of Septimus Weasley. The rest of the Weasley family has been added, including Ron, George, Percy, and Bill’s respective wives, Hermione, Angelina Johnson, Audrey and Fleur Delacour. The tree also shows the next generation of wizards, including Harry and Ginny’s children, as well as Ron and Hermione’s, George and Angelina’s, Percy and Audrey’s and Bill and Fleur’s. I have also linked the Prewett family to the tree, branching off of Molly Weasley. This includes her unnamed parents, her brothers, as well as her uncle, who married Lucretia Black. In a corner, I linked the Evans and the Dursleys to the great and noble House of Black through Lily’s marriage to James Potter. Vernon and Petunia Dursley are now connected to the Blacks as well as Aunt Marge and Dudley’s wife and kids. I have also noted of other pure-blood names that crop up on the tree through marriage. (i.e.; Longbottom, Malfoy, Macmillan, Crabbe, etc.)

JKR has told us before that, yes, all pure-bloods are related in the books, but has anyone ever taken on the challenge of creating a family tree to connect all pure-bloods and essentially, through marriage, everyone within the wizarding community and beyond? Now, this is a very difficult task, if not impossible due to lack of information on less-important characters, and missing information linking slightly more relevant characters. For example, there is no description of the relation linking Auntie Muriel to the family. I have seen on Harry Potter Wikia that she is the aunt of Molly, but it is unclear as to if she could be a parent’s sibling, or a grandmother’s sister. There are possibilities that can be ruled out, such as the sibling of a parent, but there is a lack of direct information.

That being said, would it even be possible to link everyone? It would take massive amounts of work, and maybe even a little inside information from JKR herself to link relevant characters, but it would be impossible to link all wizards back to each other.

While studying the family tree, I also noticed how there were lots of inter-marriages. Meaning to say, other pure-blood names would pop up on the tree from time to time, which I mentioned briefly earlier. For example, Narcissa Black, a known pure-blood, married Lucius Malfoy, another known pure-blood. Because so many pure-blood families take pride in their blood status, they tend to marry others like them. Their blood lines tend to die out sooner than blood-traitor’s blood lines do. The male line of the Blacks is dead, (Sirius was the last male Black alive), but however, the female line still exists because of Narcissa. The Malfoys have one son, Draco, who marries a witch, Astoria Greengrass, whose blood status is unknown. If she were a half-blood, then Scorpius would be a half-blood, and if he were to marry a Muggle, and had one child, who was a squib, then upon that child’s death if they did not marry a wizard, or never married, then the Black Family would be completely extinct. However, if she was a pure-blood, and if she and Draco chose to raise Scorpius with traditional pure-blood values, then he would have to find a pure-blood woman to marry. Pure-bloods are slowly dying off, and there is no true pure-blood alive, without some connection to a half-blood or Muggle family. It would be harder to find a pure-blood to marry therefore, and if those values were kept for a few generations, then there would be no one left to marry and everyone would die off.

However, a blood-traitor family like the Weasley family would have a longer lasting blood-line because they don’t believe in the purity of blood. These people marry a person because they truly love the other, regardless of blood status. For example, Ron married Hermione, a Muggle born. They would pass down the “blood-traitor views” if you will, to their children, who would go out and find the person they truly deserve to marry. Even if they married a Muggle, because they are of magical blood, they would have magical children, and the blood line would live on.

Using this information, it would appear as if having blood-traitor views makes for a more successful “dynasty” of witches and wizards, who will grow and contribute to the wizarding community. The horrible, often dark views of pure-blood wizards make them medieval, but marrying only into their own blood status also dooms them to death. I have also been able to conclude that it would be impossible to map out all relevant wizards onto a family tree. Think about it realistically: would you be able to do something like this in real life? Absolutely not, and it’s no different for wizards. That being said, it is also important to love someone for who they are, not because of their blood status. Because confining yourself to only pure-blood spouses will not only limit your choices, but also lead you to a death trap, because eventually, your family will be extinct.