FAMILY. Father, mother, and children. All the, individuals who live under the au thority of another, including the servants of the family. Poor v. Ins. Co., 2 Fed. 432. All the relations who descend from a common ancestor or who spring from a common root. La. Code, art. 3522, no. 16; 9 Ves. 323. The primary meaning of a testator's "family" in a will Is children; 3 Ch. Div. 672.
In common parlance it consists of those who live under the same roof with the pater familias. When they branch out and become the heads of new establishments, they cease to be part of the father's family. 4 Term 797; Dodge v. R. Co., 154 Mass. 299, 28 N. E. 243, 13 L. R. A. 318.
While usually importing a household, in eluding parents, children, and servants, it is not necessary, to sustain the family relation between parents and children, that they should reside together; Putman v. Southern Pac. Co., 21 Or. 230, 27 Pac. 1033.
Where the mother of an insured person did not live with him and was not dependent upon him for support, it was held she was not a member of his family ; Western Com mercial Travelers' Ass'n v. Tennent, 128 Mo. App. 541, 106 S. W. 1073.
It is said to mean, in the Texas constitu tion, "every collective body of persons living 'together within the same curtilage, subsist ing in common, directing their attention to a common object-the promotion of their mutu al interests and social happiness." Wilson v. Cochran, 31 Tex. 680, 98 Am. Deq. 553. "A family is the collective body of persons who live in one house; under one head or man ager." Tyson v. Reynolds, 52 Ia. 431, 3 N. W. 469 ; Arnold v. Waltz, 53 Ia. 706, 6 N. W. 40, 36 Am. Rep. 248.
Those members of the household who are dependent on the householder to whom he owes some duty. Brokaw v. Ogle, 170 Ill. 115, 48 N. E. 394.
The meaning of the term is frequently a matter of statutory or constitutional inter pretation. An unmarried woman keeping house and taking care of two children of a deceased sister is the head of a family ; Ar nold v. Waltz, 53 Ia. 706, 6 N. W. 40, 36 Am. Rep. 248 ; a widower without children, who takes his mother to live with him ; Parsons v. Livingston, 11 Ia. 104, 77 Ani. Dec. 135 ; an unmarried man who succeeds his father in taking care of his minor sisters may be deem ed the head of a family ; Greenwood v. Mad dox, 27 Ark. 658; an unmarried man sup porting his widowed sister and her small children ; Wade v. Jones, 20 Mo. 75, 61 Am. Dec. 584; an unmarried man whose widowed sister lived with him and kept his house ; Bailey v. Comings, Fed. Cas. No. 733 ; an
unmarried woman with her illegitimate child; Ellis v. White, 47 Cal. 73. But not a man who has no family ; Abercrombie v. Ald erson, 9 Ala. 981; Woodworth v. Comstock, 10 Allen (Mass.) 425. A single person in the actual occupancy of a homestead, although not the head of a family, is entitled to a homestead exemption as a family ; Hesnard v. Plunkett, 6 S. D. 73, 60 N. W. 159.
Husband and wife constitute a family un der homestead and exemption laws; Williams v. Young, 17 Cal. 403 ; Oppenheim v. Myers, 99 Va. 582, 39 S. E. 218 ; Chafee v. Rainey, 21 S. C. 11; Dye v. Cooke, 88 Tenn. 275, 12 S., W. 631, 17 Am. St. Rep. 882 ; Trotter v. Dobbs, 38 Miss. 198 ; Miller v. Finegan, 26 Fla. 29, 7 South. 140, 6 L. R. A. 813 ; Cox v. Stafford, 14 How. Pr. (N. Y.) 519 ; Kitchell v. Burgwin, 21 Ill. 45 ; a widow constitutes a family on the death of her husband, though her children were all of age ; Aultman, Mil ler & Co. v. Price, 68 Kan. 640, 75 Pac. 1019; and a widow without children ; Moore v. Parker, 13 S. C. 490 ; and one whose children had all reached majority, where one of them had lived in her house and was dependent on her for support; Sheehy v. Scott, 128 Ia. 551, 104 N. W. 1139, 4 L. R. A. (N. S.) 365 ; a deserted wife without children was head of a family ; Berry v. Hanks, 28 Ill. App. 51; and so was a widower with whom lived his son and his son's wife and a servant ; Tyson v. Reynolds, 52 Ia. 431, 3 N. W. 469 ; or a widower and a grown-up daughter ; Cox v. Stafford, 14 How. Pr. (N. Y.) 521; or merely a widower ; In re Lamb's Estate, 95 Cal. 397, 30 Pac. 568 ; and where the homestead had been acquired, a widower having a son and daughter of age was entitled to the exemp tion; Webb v. Cowley, 5 Lea (Tenn.) 722; so where there were no children, but a wid ower kept house with a housekeeper ; Ellis v. Davis, 90 Ky. 183, 14 S. W. 74 ; but a wid ower keeping house with a female relative, to whom he owes no duty of support, has no family ; Whitehead v. Nickelson, 48 Tex. 517. Under homestead laws: (1) Family relates to social status, not a mere contract ; (2) le gal or moral obligations on the head of the family to support the other members must be considered ; and (3) corresponding state of dependence on the part of the other members for this support ; Roco v. Green, 50 Tex. 488.