Since we’ve headed down the road of categorizing entities by their relationship to the observer, we should talk briefly about familials.

Familials are basically entities that are intimately familiar to the witness.  They could be a parent, a sibling, spouse, a child or a close friend. They could really be anyone well known to the observer, and I believe these may actually be the most common type of manifestation. 

Interestingly, while familials are very common, they also tend to be short-lived.  Often they’re seen only once, usually to a grieving individual, which leads us to believe that their appearance is a way of saying goodbye or an attempt to comfort the bereaved. 
 
Unfortunately, this makes them very difficult to investigate.  Since they often never repeat their appearance or other manifestation, you could investigate the location many times with no success. 
 
Having said all this, familials will occasionally make a repeat appearance.  In those cases, they will inter-act with the living but generally seem to have a specific purpose or goal.  It may be a warning, or some other information they feel the living needs and once that goal is accomplished another appearance is very rare.