House of Gaunt

The House of Gaunt was a family of witches descended from Cadmus Peverell and Salazar Slytherin, and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. They had a tendency to marry their own cousins to keep their blood pure and to retain the traits of their ancestor, most notably the ability to speak to snakes.

The Gaunt family lived just outside of Little Hangleton, a small village in northern England. They were very wealthy and prominent at one point, having descended from many powerful witches. However, their liking for grandeur in tandem with little sensibility when it came to indulgences meant the family wealth was squandered long before the last of the lineage was born.

Traits
Up until the 20th century, every single member of the Gaunt family was pure-blood. They were also the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin, as well as descendants of Cadmus Peverell, famed ancestors in whom they took great pride.

As stated above, the Gaunts inherited their ancestor's ability to speak to snakes. Like other pure-blood families of the time, they were supreme advocates of blood purity and were often inbred in order to maintain "purity". However, by the 20th century, mentally unstable members of the family had squandered the family's fortune and cost it much of its prestige among the elite pure-blood circles. Despite this, their habit of keeping themselves pure allowed them to become one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

Corvinus' Branch

 * 1) Corvinus Gaunt + Unknown
 * 2) unknown generations
 * 3) Marvolo Gaunt + Unknown
 * 4) Morfin Gaunt
 * 5) Merope Gaunt + Tom Riddle, Sr.
 * 6) Tom Riddle, Jr. + Bellatrix Black
 * 7) Delphini Rowle

Gormlaith's Branch

 * 1) Gormlaith Gaunt
 * 2) Rionach Gaunt + William Sayre
 * 3) Isolt Sayre + James Steward
 * 4) Chadwick Boot (adoptive) + Josefina Calderon
 * 5) Webster Boot (adoptive) + Unknown
 * 6) Martha Steward II + Unknown
 * 7) Rionach Steward

Related Families

 * Boot family
 * Lestrange family
 * Riddle family
 * Rowle family
 * Sayre family
 * Steward family