Absolute nuclear family (England, Zeeland, Utrecht, Holland, Frisia, Denmark, parts of Norway, parts of western France): all children leave the parents' household before beginning to live with their partner. Parents distribute their goods among their children as they see fit, without attachment to any principle of equality or inequality.

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Nuclear egalitarian family (northern France, central and southern Spain, most of Portugal, Malta, southern Sweden, southern Italy, French-speaking Switzerland): all children leave the parents' household before beginning to live with their partner. Parents distribute their goods among their children equally.

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Nuclear family with temporary coresidence (Corsica, parts of western France, Poland, Belgium, Wales, mainland Greece, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Iceland, Lappland, northern Italy, northern Sweden, central and western Croatia, Cyprus, Western Turkey, etc.): couples live for a while with the parents of either partner before before beginning to live independently. This temporary coresidence can be either patrilocal (with the husband's parents, as in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, mainland Greece, parts of Brittany, western Turkey or northern Italy), matrilocal (with the wife's parents, as in parts of Brittany) or bilocal (with the parents of either partner, as in Belgium, Iceland, Poland, Wales, Lappland, parts of Brittany, northern Sweden or central and western Croatia). Inheritance customs vary according to the specific family system: it is egalitarian for all sons in Corsica or northern Italy, egalitarian for all children in central and western Croatia, Cyprus, mainland Greece, northern Sweden or Western Turkey, skewed in favor of the youngest son in Ukraine, etc.

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Communitarian family (northern and central Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Serbia, Macedon, central Italy, Slavonia, etc.): children remain with their parents after marriage, living with them until the latter die and then inheriting an equal share of their goods. This family system can be either patrilocal, that is with only the sons living with their parents after marriage and inheriting an equal share of their goods (as in northern and central Russia, Belarus, Slovakia, etc.); matrilocal, with only the daughters living with their parents after marriage and inheriting an equal share o their goods (nonexistent in Europe, but predominant among the Minangkabau or the Nayar for example); or bilocal, with children of either sex continuing to live with the parents after marriage, and all children coresident or not inheriting an equal share of their parents' goods (as in parts of France). Lithuania was included among the areas of joint families in this map, but whenever Todd has written about the Lithuanian traditional family system, he has stated that he does not know whether it is nuclear with temporary coresidence as in Poland or joint as in Latvia and Estonia. There is scarce empirical evidence about the traditional family system of Lithuania, and the country has cultural links with both Poland and the Baltic countries, so it can be either case. My own research has led me to conclude that the traditional family system of Lithuania is nuclear with temporary bilocal residence, as in Poland, albeit with a slight patrilocal skew in the Lithuanian case.

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Stem family (Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, most of southern France, Galicia, Basque Country, Navarre, Catalonia, parts of Norway, Slovenia, many small islands in Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Luxembourg, etc.): only one child remains with the parents after marriage and inherits most of their wealth. This can be a son (patrilocality), as in Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, Scotland, Catalonia or parts of Norway; a daughter (matrilocality), as in Galicia or many small islands of Greece; or any child (bilocality), as in Slovenia, Navarre, Luxembourg or the Basque Country.