The familial canopy as thought space for meaning making, emotional calibration and planful action around inherited cancer risk

•The identification of genetic cancer risk often induces a reconsideration of self-concept.•Familial context is salient to individuals' engagement with elevated risk and subsequent action.•Familial generations offer distinct resources for meaning-making that are not temporally bound.•Generational peers can be salient for integration of hereditary cancer into individual identity.