Standard-Model-like Chiral Spectra and the Origin of the Families

We outline our approach to understand the family structure through the idea of a SM-like chiral fermion spectrum, one that is derivable from anomaly cancellation conditions in the same way as the one family SM, under an extended symmetry, which after breaking to the SM symmetry yields the three families as the residual chiral content. An example of a relatively simple scalar sector which gives an acceptable symmetry breaking pattern and naturally hierarchical quark mass matrices is also discussed for a successful $SU(4)_A\otimes SU(3)_C\otimes SU(2)_L\otimes U(1)_X$ model. This is a summary of a seminar given at the 37th IUKT winter school, for the proceedings.