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This question mentions that on Pottermore there is a list of the pure-blood families (by 1930).

I don't see the Potter family in there. We know that James Potter was pure-blood so both his parents must have been also pure-blood. James was born in 1960 so his parents were born around 1930-1940.

So why doesn't the Potter family appear on the the 'pure-blood list'?

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2 Answers 2

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This is described elsewhere on Pottermore under the heading "The Potter Family":

Potter is a not uncommon Muggle surname, and the family did not make the so-called ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’ for this reason; the anonymous compiler of that supposedly definitive list of pure-bloods suspected that they had sprung from what he considered to be tainted blood.

There's also the fact that it's explicitly noted that the family is not actually pure-blooded at all, with numerous inter-marriages with muggles:

The Potters continued to marry their neighbours, occasionally Muggles, and to live in the West of England, for several generations, each one adding to the family coffers by their hard work and, it must be said, by the quiet brand of ingenuity that had characterised their forebear, Linfred.

As Hagrid points out in the Chamber of Secrets film, the concept of 'pure-bloodedness' is a complete nonsense anyway.

Hagrid: "And it's codswallop, to boot. 'Dirty blood.' Why, there isn’t a wizard alive today that’s not half-blood or less."

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    Gotta be quick around here.
    – Valorum
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 8:40
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    Am I the only one who read that last quote in Robbie Coltrane's voice?
    – FreeMan
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 18:33
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    @FreeMan I read it in Hagrid's voice automatically.
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 22:16
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According to J.K. Rowling on Pottermore:

Occasionally, a Potter made it all the way to London, and a member of the family has twice sat on the Wizengamot: Ralston Potter, who was a member from 1612-1652, and who was a great supporter of the Statute of Secrecy (as opposed to declaring war on the Muggles, as more militant members wished to do) and Henry Potter (Harry to his intimates), who was a direct descendant of Hardwin and Iolanthe, and Henry "Harry" Potter served on the Wizengamot from 1913 - 1921. Henry caused a minor stir when he publicly condemned then Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, who had forbidden the magical community to help Muggles waging the First World War. His outspokenness on the behalf of the Muggle community was also a strong contributing factor in the family’s exclusion from the ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’.

J.K. Rowling - Pottermore - Writings from J.K. Rowling - The Potter Family

The exclusion of the Potter family from the Sacred Twenty-Eight seems to be more due to politics than bloodlines.

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    Interesting. JKR seems to have contradicted herself a bit here.
    – Valorum
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 9:41
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    I usually do but this one was very clear to me. BTW your source is the same like the one of Richard.
    – vap78
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 9:43
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    The two are not necessarily contradictory. "outspokenness on the behalf of the Muggle community" probably directly equals "the anonymous compiler of that supposedly definitive list of pure-bloods suspected that they had sprung from what he considered to be tainted blood."
    – gowenfawr
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 12:30
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    @gowenfawr - I don't disagree. For me, the biggest killer fact is that the Potters simply aren't pure-blood, by any definition of the word. They've openly inter-married with muggles which the mysterious compiler would undoubtedly have uncovered.
    – Valorum
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 15:24
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    @JamesRyan - "In the early 1930s, a 'Pure-Blood Directory' was published anonymously in Britain, which listed the twenty-eight truly pure-blood families, as judged by the unknown authority who had written the book, with 'the aim of helping such families maintain the purity of their bloodlines'. The so-called 'Sacred Twenty-Eight' comprised the families of...[etc]". Which part is unclear? Putting a family which has openly intermarried with muggles would make the list pointless.
    – Valorum
    Commented Oct 18, 2015 at 18:00

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