Legal Term: HALF-BLOOD

Definition: parentage, kindred. When persons have only one parent in common, they are of the half-blood. For example, if John marry Sarah and has a son by that marriage, and after Sarahs death he marry Maria, and has by her another son, these children are of the half-blood; whereas two of the children of John and Sarah would be of the whole blood.

2. By the English common law, one related to an intestate of the half-blood only, could never inherit, upon the presumption that he is not of the blood of the original purchaser; but this rule has been greatly modified by the 3 and 4 Wm. IV. c. 106.

3. In this country the common law principle on this subject may be considered as not in force, though in some states some distinction is still preserved between the whole and the half-blood. 4 Kent, Com. 403, n.; 2 Yerg. 115; 1 MCord, 456; Danes Ab. Index, h. t.; Reeves on Descents, passim. Vide Descents.

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