I sometimes hear 姉さん used as just another way of addressing an older woman but
I don't understand the usage of 親戚の姉さん. 親戚(shinseki) is relative so does
Shinseki no Nesan mean the literal older sister of a relative, or something
else? The full fragment I want to get the meaning of is 昔から大好きな親戚の姉さん.
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question
translation particle-の relative-clauses kinship-terms
Meaning for 昔から大好きな親戚の姉さん
This 'の' should most naturally be regarded as an apposition, rather than
possession. So it refers to a 姉さん, who is your 親戚.

Looking up a dictionary, the definition of the word 姉さん usually starts with
these two:

  1. older sister (広辞苑: >「あね」の軽い尊敬語…)
  2. young lady (広辞苑: > 若い女性を呼ぶ称。)

In the phrase 親戚の姉さん, it falls somewhat in between. I think "a female,
comparative to your older sister (existent or not) in age" would be a fair
interpretation. (I initially felt that the phrase typically refers to a young
person, but I won't find it odd if the speaker is 55 yo and his '親戚の姉さん' is 60
yo.)

So it refers to someone in your relatives, who is a little older than you.
Could be your grandfather's sister's granddaughter or anything. Note that the
speaker's real sisters will not be included in the phrase.

* * *

"A relative's older sister", on the other hand, is a possible interpretation
but weird without context. As you noticed, a relative's sister _is_ your
relative, so it isn't logical to mention separately. Unless that relative is
known beforehand, as in this (possibly unnatural) random example I came up
with.

> この前親戚から仕事を受けました．その親戚の姉さんが，今回の依頼主です． _An older sister of that relative (with
> whom we had a contract last time) is our client this time._
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answer