Gemstone families

“We are family, get up ev’rybody and sing.”

Sister Sledge, We Are Family (1979)

The table below is a useful aid for obtaining information about gemstones, such as chemical composition, group and family membership, and their various colors, all factors that are closely interrelated. It is surprising how useful it can be to consider a gemstone in relation to its closest relatives, particularly for complex families such as Garnet.

The following table groups gemstones based on their chemical composition (e.g. silicates, oxides and hydroxides) and their mineralogical family (e.g. Corundum, Beryl and Feldspar).