How to address an entire family in a letter?

Question

How should you start a letter when addressing an entire family?

Dear The Jones Family,

or

Dear Jones Family,

I was discussing this with my wife and I preferred the former while my wife prefers the latter. The second one sounds wrong to me but I'm not sure if it is only because I'm not used to it.

Is this just up to preference or is there any particular rules regarding inclusion of "the"?

I'd switch the Dear and go with To the Jones Family. How can Dear The be smooth? — Yosef Baskin, Apr 03 '22 at 23:44
I would agree with your wife. If the family is not too big you could list them as in Dear Peter, Ann and Frederick — Peter, Apr 04 '22 at 00:40
@davidlol Nowadays many families have same-sex couples. I would avoid addressing a family this way unless 1. I knew for a fact the couple were different genders and were married and 2. the spouse didn't object to being called by their wife's or husband's last name, e.g. Mrs Jones. — Mari-Lou A, Apr 04 '22 at 09:44
@Mari-LouA Good point, but then also you would need to know that they all accepted they were the "Jones" family, rather than a family some of whom were called Jones. I suppose it depends more on who they are to the writer: "Dear all at number 15" would sometimes do. — davidlol, Apr 04 '22 at 09:54
Related: How does one address a blended family in which the members have different surnames? and How do I pluralize a name ending in "y"? — Mari-Lou A, Apr 04 '22 at 09:59

Anton · Answer 1 · 2022-04-04T08:06:01.557

2

There is a case to be made for parallelism. We use Dear Mr Jones, Dear Mrs Jones, Dear Messrs Green, Dear Dr Tyler, putting the honorific or title before the surname.

Using the same construction, I have seen, and occasionally use, the parallel usage Dear Family Smith.

It is particularly useful when the list of names is long or the exact limits of the family being addressed are not clear (as when writing in sympathy to an extended family group on a death).

As an aside I agree with your wife in her dislike of your own suggestion. To use the definite article “the” in “The Jones Family” implies that there is one and only one family of Jones. This is clearly not true.

edited Apr 04 '22 at 08:06

answered Apr 04 '22 at 07:32

Anton

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To use "Dear Family Smith" or "Dear Smith Family" at all seems a little impersonal. But I agree the definite article is never used. ("Dear The Mr Smith"? No.) – Andrew Leach Apr 04 '22 at 07:38
Another option is “Dear members of the Jones family”, if the group is large and includes cousins and the like. – Xanne Apr 04 '22 at 08:11

How to address an entire family in a letter?

1 Answers1