Happy families

Happy families

Two cards from an 1880s edition of Jaques's Happy Families
Alternative names	Quartett, Ablegspiel
Type	Matching
Players	3–4 (2–8)
Age range	3+[1]
Cards	various
Deck	Dedicated
Play	Clockwise
Easy to play

Happy families is a traditional British card game usually with a specially made set of picture cards, featuring illustrations of fictional families of four, most often based on occupation types. The object of the game is to collect complete families, and the game is similar to Go Fish and Quartets.^[2]

In Germany and Austria, the game is known as Quartett or Ablegspiel (in Upper Austria and Styria) and is not restricted to sets of four people, but covers other topics such as farm animals or tractors. The game can also be adapted for use with an ordinary set of playing cards.

The player whose turn it is asks another player for a specific card: the asking player must hold a card of the same family.^[3] If the asked player has the card, they must give it to the requester, and the requester then takes another turn. If the asked player does not have the card, they say "not at home" and it becomes the asked player's turn.

When a player completes a family they place it face-down in front of them. Play continues in this way until no families are separated among different players. The player with the most completed families wins.

The game was devised by John Jaques Jr. who is also credited with popularizing tiddlywinks, ludo and snakes and ladders, and first published before the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cards following Jaques's original designs, with grotesque illustrations possibly by Sir John Tenniel^[4] (there was no official credit), are still being made.

The names of the family members are structured as follows, where X stands for a surname and Y for an occupation.

• Mr X the Y
• Mrs X the Y's wife
• Master X the Y's son
• Miss X the Y's daughter

The eleven families in Jaques' original edition were:^[5]

• Old maid (card game)