House of Black

"Any time the family produced someone halfway decent they were disowned."

- Sirius Black on his family

The House of Black is one of the largest and oldest pure-blood wizarding families in Britain. Many wizarding families in Britain are distantly related to the House of Black. The Black family tree is displayed in the drawing room of the family home at 12 Grimmauld Place in London, England on an intricate tapestry. It starts in the Middle Ages and shows the dominant line of the family up to the present day.

By the late twentieth century, the House of Black became extinct in the male line with the deaths of Sirius and Regulus Black, neither of whom had children. The female line is still extant through the Malfoy family and Teddy Lupin, though the latter descends from a Black who was disowned.

History
"...my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal..."

- Sirius Black to Harry Potter on his family's values



The Black family traces its origin back to the Middle Ages. They claim to have entirely magical ancestry, but as Sirius Black informed his godson Harry Potter, no truly pure-blood family existed by the twentieth century. The pure-blood families like the Blacks simply removed Muggles and Squibs from their family trees. The Blacks place a great importance on blood purity, considering themselves akin to royalty in the wizarding world and disdaining Muggles and Muggle-borns. The family motto, which can be found on the family crest, is Toujours Pur, which means "Always Pure" in French.

Because of their views, a large number of the Black family members practice the Dark Arts and supported Lord Voldemort during the First and Second Wizarding Wars. A few Blacks became Death Eaters, while many others never took the Dark Mark but believed in the "purification" of the wizarding world nevertheless. A few members of the family, however, disagreed with the traditional views of their family; Sirius Black, for example, joined the Order of the Phoenix, as did Nymphadora Tonks, a distaff member of the Black family. Both were murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange née Black, Sirius's cousin and Tonks's aunt, in battle.

With Sirius's death, the male line of the Black family ended; the female line continues through the descendants of his cousins Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy.

Family Tree
"This is the Black family tree... I hated the lot of them."

- Sirius Black to Harry Potter



Legend: Names in grey were removed from the tree by Walburga Black. The published tree does not contain descendants of side branches of the family. See also:
 * Another Version of Black Family Tree, which shows the Blacks are additionally related to the families Longbottom, Weasley, Flint, Rosier, Macmillan, Yaxley, Prewett, Crabbe, and Crouch.
 * HP Lexicon Tree.

"Blasted Off"
"Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh! …Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers!"

- The portrait of Walburga Black screaming at her "traitor" son

The original tree described from Grimmauld Place was subject to some magical interference. According to Sirius Black, his mother Walburga blasted names of "blood traitors" off the tapestry without hesitation. The Black family motto of Toujours Pur ("always pure") was followed assiduously by family members; any who disagreed with the notion of blood purity or married Muggles or people of different blood statuses were disowned and blasted off the family tree, as were any Squibs. Thus, family members that remain on the tapestry can be assumed to have married fellow pure-bloods. Some even married their own cousins; Walburga and Orion Black, for instance, were second cousins. Generations of this practice resulted in inbreeding, which in turn has caused problems such as low fertility and mental instability.

Etymology of Given Names
Most Black family members are named after stars or constellations. For example, the star Sirius is in the constellation Canis Major (the Dog). What's more, Sirius Black, an Animagus, could morph at will into a black dog named Padfoot. Another example is Bellatrix, the third brightest star in the constellation Orion, which is also the name of Sirius's father and Bellatrix's uncle. Cygnus, Andromeda, and Cassiopeia are also constellations, and Regulus, Alphard and Arcturus are stars as well.

Some members of the extended family have also chosen to follow this naming pattern. For example, Narcissa Malfoy née Black named her son Draco, which is the name of a constellation. In turn, he named his son Scorpius, which is one of the constellations of the zodiac, known as Scorpio in Western astrology.

Blood Relatives

 * Alexia Walkin Black
 * Alphard Black — removed posthumously for leaving money to his disowned nephew
 * Andromeda Tonks née Black — removed for marrying a Muggle-born, Ted Tonks
 * Arcturus Black I
 * Arcturus Black II
 * Arcturus Black III
 * Bellatrix Lestrange née Black
 * Belvina Burke née Black
 * Callidora Longbottom née Black
 * Cassiopeia Black
 * Cedrella Weasley née Black — removed for marrying a blood traitor, Septimus Weasley
 * Charis Crouch née Black
 * Cygnus Black I
 * Cygnus Black II
 * Cygnus Black III
 * Dorea Potter née Black
 * Eduardus Limette Black — removed for an unknown reason
 * Elladora Black
 * Isla Hitchens née Black — removed for marrying a Muggle, Bob Hitchens
 * Lucretia Prewett née Black
 * Lycoris Black
 * Marius Black — removed because he was a Squib
 * Narcissa Malfoy née Black - wife of Lucius Malfoy and mother of Draco Malfoy
 * Orion Black - Walburga's husband.
 * Phineas Nigellus Black
 * Phineas Black — removed for supporting Muggle rights
 * Pollux Black
 * Phoebe Black
 * Regulus Black I
 * Regulus Black II
 * Sirius Black I
 * Sirius Black II
 * Sirius Black III — removed for being a blood traitor, removed after he ran away
 * Walburga Black - mother of Sirius and Regulus Black.
 * Mrs. Blishwick née Black

Relatives by Marriage

 * Bob Hitchens -- husband of Isla Black
 * Caspar Crouch — husband of Charis Black
 * Charlus Potter — husband of Dorea Black
 * Druella Rosier — wife of Cygnus Black III
 * Ella Max — wife of Cygnus Black I
 * Harfang Longbottom — husband of Callidora Longbottom née Black
 * Herbert Burke — husband of Belvina Black
 * Hesper Gamp — wife of Sirius Black II
 * Ignatius Prewett — husband of Lucretia Black
 * Irma Crabbe — wife of Pollux Black
 * Jimbo Blishwick — husband of Mrs. Blishwick née Black
 * Lucius Malfoy — husband of Narcissa Malfoy née Black
 * Lysandra Yaxley — wife of Arcturus Black II
 * Melania Macmillan — wife of Arcturus Black III
 * Rodolphus Lestrange — husband of Bellatrix Lestrange née Black
 * Septimus Weasley — husband of Cedrella Black
 * Ted Tonks — husband of Andromeda Tonks née Black
 * Ursula Flint — wife of Phineas Nigellus Black
 * Violetta Bulstrode — wife of Cygnus Black II

Distant Relatives


Thus, the Blacks are related to the Blishwick, Flint, Gamp, Bulstrode, Burke, Yaxley, Macmillan, Crabbe, Potter, Longbottom, Weasley, Crouch, Prewett, Rosier, Lestrange, Tonks, Malfoy, and Lupin families.

Etymology
Black can be considered a colour, though it is more accurately the absence of colour. In Western culture, the colour black has typically been associated with evil, darkness, and witchcraft, but also with prestige and sophistication — appropriate for the House of Black. Black has also been associated with life and prosperity by other cultures. In ancient China, black was the symbol of the element of water, which also corresponds to Slytherin, the Hogwarts house of almost all members of the Black family. In English heraldry, black represents darkness and ignorance; a possible allusion to the prejudice common to members of the House of Black.

However, the English word black is derived from either the Old English blœc, meaning "black", or blac, meaning "pale". Pallor is associated with sickness and the colour white, which is usually held to symbolize purity in Western and Indian culture, and death in East Asian cultures. This mirrors the typical colouring of members of the House of Black — dark hair and pale skin.

Behind the scenes

 * A hand drawn copy of the most recent section of the family tree was donated to a charity auction for Book Aid by J. K. Rowling, in February 2006. The drawing was purchased on behalf of Daniel Radcliffe for £30,000.
 * Walburga and Orion Black were second cousins, but they get married.
 * Another version of the family tree tapestry appeared in the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film). When filmmakers told Rowling that they needed to "visualise Sirius Black's family tree," she faxed them the complete Black family tree, going back eight generations. On that tree there are some mistakes: the name Phineas is misspelt Phineus, there is no image of Cygnus II, but only his name, and there is no mention of Ted Tonks on Andromeda's picture. On the left side of the tree are decipted people who not appear on the family tree of J. K. Rowling (right picture). We can see on the left side that one person was disowned even before Isla Hitchens.
 * Many members of the House of Black have died at considerably younger ages than is the norm for wizards and witches. Of those whose dates of birth and death are shown on the family tree, none lived to be older than one hundred, and most died between the ages of fifty and eighty.
 * Many members of the family are said to have great good looks, with a touch of aristocratic arrogance to it.
 * After Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the only pure-blood members who weren't dead or imprisoned are: Narcissa Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Scorpius Malfoy, Andromeda Tonks, Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy, George, Ron, and Ginny.
 * It is also possible that the female Black line continues in Harry Potter, as he is possibly related to Charlus Potter and Dorea Black.

Notes and references
Famille Black