[OSM-newbies] New or existing relation?

[Bob Hawkins]

I understand that the Relations list in JOSM shows all relations pertaining to the the downloaded OSM data.  I wish to add a relation to a section of long distance path that I have plotted.  If such a relation does not exist within the bounding box of the downloaded data, do I create a new relation?  Should I know whether such a relation occurs elsewhere and what its attributes are so that I compile my relation to match?  If so, how do I find that relation?  I find such issues regarding relations quite confusing and would welcome some constructive comments. 
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