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And if any of the missing ones were there, we could not perform the final step without violating the one letter per cell restriction.

Candledave - #30 "Arguably there's only one missing..." ???
-now I know I've failed to spot something obvious.

I can see 2 disjointed bits of one other close family member, as well as the intact parent, in SEQ - but no trace of the other two - so thought this must be chance - but am I unenlightened?

Didn’t mean to confuse, just meant that two of them don’t have any thematic items as far as I know

Candledave - of course! - see what you mean. Silly me.
But maybe would have been nice to include the one with kids?
(I'm never satisfied)

Don't want to seem ungracious - this one was much more at my enjoyability level than the last few - thanks, Eclogue .

Candledave, Buzzb - the wheels of logic have creaked around in the rusty iron difference engine that is what remains of my brain, and now I fully understand why the three remaining family members just couldn't participate, given the thematic rule.

Put it down as a special macro example of the Exclusion Principle.

Interestingly, the family dog, lately cast out of the household apparently because it hadn't kept its part of the garden tidy, would have qualified.

Really enjoyed this one, this is a great point on the challenge spectrum for me. Not easy (for me, anyway) but not brutal. Always a bit pleased when I can complete the puzzle without needing to pop over to the thread. There were some bits of wordplay that eluded me for a few days after having a full grid, but they eventually clicked! And nice to be able to enter at least the first round of theme answers without recourse to Google.

Crowdedmorning - congrats!

Useby, has enough time has gone by that you could give us a hint about the meaning of the title?

To find meaning in the title:
1. remember your three-letter word that initially occupied the central cell
2. now look at the word that occupies the central cell now that you've completed the grid
3. ???
4. emit a joyous series of beeps and whistles