Harry's Family (or lack thereof)

[Pat]

No: HPFGUIDX 113184

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "gelite67" <gelite67 at y...> 
wrote:
> Are we to assume that Harry's maternal and paternal grandparents 
are 
> dead and that he has no other aunts/uncles/cousins?  I can see 
> Petunia being estranged from her parents, but I can't see James or 
> Lily's parents not attempting to take care of Harry if they were 
> alive.  I know Dumbledore says somethin in OOP about the fact that 
> there were wizard families who would have taken him in.  I assume 
> from all of that we are to assume Harry has NO other family alive.
> 
> I guess that would be a good thing, possibly, because if Harry has 
> other family, LV could use them against him, as he did with Sirius.
> 
> Angie

Pat here:

Yes, it does seem unusual for a child to have no living relatives.  
But, in my own case, I didn't have any grandparents by the time I 
was 9--and Voldemort was not involved.  It's also very possible that 
James was an only child.  So once he and his parents were gone, that 
would take care of that side of Harry's family (especially if his 
paternal grandparents also came from small families, which we don't 
know).  On Lily's side of the family, Dumbledore does say that 
Petunia is Harry's only living relative.  So that sounds pretty 
definite.

Pat