> 「もちろん偶然苗字が一緒だっただけとか、名前を騙ってるだけって可能性もゼロではねーですけども、何らかの関わりがあるという前提で考えるのなら、私や兄様の
> **親戚筋** ってところですかね？少なくとも、私や兄様と面識があるみてーですし」

What would be the meaning of the 「筋」in 「親戚筋」? Are there any other examples of
this usage of 「筋」?
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word-usage
What would be the meaning of the 「筋」in 「親戚筋」?
I think 筋{すじ} here means something along the lines of "family line" or
"lineage". [Jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E7%AD%8B) defines it as:

> Noun 7. lineage; descent

Google/Oxford 日本語辞書:

> 血統。血縁。  
>  「源氏の―を引く家柄」

[デジタル大辞泉（小学館）](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%AE%B6%E7%AD%8B/):

> 家系。家柄。「貴族の―を引く」

親戚筋 means relatives from a common family line. There are some similar/related
words:

> **家筋{いえすじ}** ： roughly means "family" or "pedigree"

> **血筋{ちすじ}** ： "lineage", "blood", "bloodline".
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I think the 「筋」is used in the sense, if I were to give it a definition, of "an
undefined set of people who shares a particular attribute". It means something
like "quarter", "circle" or "community" in English.「評論家筋」("the critical
community/circle") and「左翼/右翼筋」("the left/right-wing community/circle") are a
couple of examples.

Here is the closest definition on
[デジタル大辞泉](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%AD%8B_%28%E3%81%99%E3%81%98%29/):

> 12 そのことに関係のある方面。「確かな―からの情報」「消息―」

(The literal translation of the definition: "a quarter related to a given
matter".)

From this meaning derives a use of the word, which I think is relevant here,
as a means to avoid a direct reference to a specific person by instead naming
the circle/community/quarter they belong to.

On this point, the prestigious
[広辞苑](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Djien) is more observant. On my
digital copy, in its entry for「筋」, it has this:

> ⑥具体的に名をあげず、ぼかして指示するのに使う語。つながりのある方面・関係の者。

(And for good measure, it gives「親類筋」 as an example for this sense.)

So, to address the sentence in question,

> 私や兄様の親戚筋ってところですかね

reads like "I guess they must be someone from the circle of relatives of me
and my brother's"

while

> 私や兄様の親戚ってところですかね

would have read like "I guess they must be a relative of me and my brother's."

I'm hardly confident that I was able to illustrate the effect of the「筋」fully
and naturally with the comparative translation, so let me try to supplement it
by adding that the version with「筋」sounds even more speculative and tentative
about the identity of the mysterious person than the 「筋」-less one.
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