Legal Definitions - half sister

A half sister is a female sibling who shares only one biological parent (either the mother or the father) with another individual, but not both. This distinguishes her from a full sister, who shares both biological parents.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a half sister:

• Example 1: Children from a parent's previous marriage.
  After Michael's parents divorced, his father remarried and had a daughter named Chloe. Chloe is Michael's half sister because they share the same father but have different mothers. They are related through one parent, not both.

• Example 2: Siblings in a blended family.
  Sarah's mother had a daughter, Emily, with her first husband. Years later, Sarah's mother married a different man and had Sarah. Emily and Sarah are half sisters; they share their mother but have different fathers. This scenario is common in blended families where parents bring children from previous relationships together.

• Example 3: Kinship for legal purposes.
  When a family was tracing their lineage for a genealogical project, they discovered that their grandmother had a daughter, Clara, before she married their grandfather. Clara is their mother's half sister, as they share the same mother but have different fathers. Understanding this relationship can sometimes be important in legal contexts, such as determining inheritance rights or degrees of kinship.