Blood Relations

About 6 min · Reasoning and Aptitude · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 390 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Blood Relations is a topic in MPESB Group 1/2/3 reasoning sections. These questions assess your ability to decode family relationships from given statements and construct a family tree mentally or on paper.

Key ideas

Generation Mapping: Always identify which generation each person belongs to — grandparents (top), parents (middle), children (bottom). This prevents confusion in complex problems.
Gender Indicators: Words like son, brother, father, uncle, nephew indicate male. Words like daughter, sister, mother, aunt, niece indicate female. Spouse, parent, child, cousin, sibling are gender-neutral.
The "Only" Keyword: "A is the only son of B" means B has no other sons (but may have daughters). "A is the only child of B" means B has just one child total.
Paternal vs Maternal Line: Paternal relations come through father's side (paternal uncle = father's brother). Maternal relations come through mother's side (maternal grandmother = mother's mother).
In-Laws: Father-in-law/Mother-in-law = spouse's parents. Son-in-law = daughter's husband. Daughter-in-law = son's wife. Brother-in-law = spouse's brother OR sister's husband.

Watch out for

Confusing "only son" with "only child" → "Only son of X" means X may have daughters too. Read precisely and don't assume X has just one child.
Ignoring gender-neutral terms → When question says "child" or "sibling" without specifying gender, don't assume. Look for other clues or consider both possibilities.
Reversing in-law relationships → "A is the father-in-law of B" means B married A's child. Students often confuse whether A is the parent or B is the parent.

Quick reference

Always draw the family tree — use +/- for gender, = for marriage, vertical lines for parent-child.
"Only" restricts one category — only son ≠ only child.
In-laws connect through marriage — trace the spouse first, then find the relation.
Generation counting: Self = 0, Parents = +1, Grandparents = +2, Children = -1.
When stuck, start from the person whose relationship is most clearly defined.

Check yourself: 3 questions

1. Pointing to a woman, Rajesh said, 'Her son's father is the only son of my mother.' How is the woman related to Rajesh?
2. A is the brother of B. B is the sister of C. C is the father of D. How is D related to A?
3. Introducing a man, a woman said, 'His wife is the only daughter of my father.' How is the man related to the woman?

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 17 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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