The identification of close relatives is central to forensic sciences and to genetic association studies, in which spurious signals can be obtained if genetic structure is not taken into account. Identifying related individuals is also essential in archaeological studies to elucidate funerary practices, as well as to obtain a deeper understanding of past family structures and social behaviors in the absence of written records. In the past decade, following the advent of high-throughput DNA sequencing, many statistical methods have been developed to calculate kinship coefficients from genome-wide data. However, these methods are inappropriate when DNA is sequenced at insufficient depth-of-coverage, presenting high levels of post-mortem damage, as is commonly observed with ancient molecules. These methods also generally require the presence of a reference panel, which cannot be accessed in the vast majority of paleogenomic studies. Here, I review the different approaches available for inferring relatedness, focusing on those compatible with the idiosyncrasies of ancient genomic data. I then present some of the key studies taking advantage of these analytical tools, ranging from simple sample curation to addressing long-standing archaeological debates on the emergence of the nuclear family and on the role of biological kinship in past societies.