Genealogy Chat

I hope someone can help. I’m having difficulty in ‘naming’ the relations in my family, with regards to the position they hold. I can name ‘grandfather, great-grandfather, great-uncle’ etc etc, but then it gets confusing. For example: My great grandfather had a brother and his brother had a son. What would the son be called? Is he my cousin or great cousin or great nephew. I’ve looked on google and found terms for first cousins, second cousins, 1st removed, cross cousins etc etc and it confuses me more. Is there a simple way of sorting it all out? Does anyone know a website that makes it easy to understand? I have a small Microsoft Word document with a short list of relations and I can email it to anyone if they think they can help. My email address is: [email protected] There are two people in the relationship list that I want to link and so far I have her down as my first cousin 7th removed. Nuts I know. Many thanks, Mike

in the example you give I think the son of your great grandfather's brother is your 1st cousin twice removed. I have a formula somewhere for calaculating it but can't find it at the moment, Pat

I agree with Patricia......in your example the person you speak of is first cousin to your grandparent........you are two generations down from this relationship, so you are twice removed from it.....hence, first cousin, twice removed. There is a website which is a good one for helping with this, but I don't know the address as I don't use it myself. A million others will know, so just wait and see who posts! Merry

What a good question Mike. At the moment, I'm lumping all mine together and calling them 'distant relatives' Jean

Hi Mike, Try this site: http://genealogy.about*com/library/nrelationshipchart*htm replace * with . Tracey

Your first cousin 7xremoved, will be a first cousin (ie shares grandparents) of your 5xg-grandparent. Merry

What a brilliant chart on that site Tracey

Very Helpful thread. Nudge for my reference later

I looked on the Rhodes website and found a 'Cousin Calculator'. It's opened a whole new world in Google and I'm now getting somewhere. Thanks for everyones input! Mike.

Mike formula sent direct to you Pat

Nudge to look at later. Have always wondered about this! Thanks Donna

My relations: ( Me ) Mike Uff 1975 ( Father ) Leonard Uff 1944 ( grand father ) Alfred Robert Uff 1839 ( great grand father ) William Markham Uff 1839 ( great great grand father )William Markham Uff 1807 NOW, WILLIAM MARKHAM UFF (1807) HAD A BROTHER……. ( great great uncle ) George Uff ( William Markham Uff’s brother ) 1802 James Uff 1831 Joseph Uff 1862 Henry James Uff 1893 Doreen Uff 1922 Peter Rock 1946 Lorraine Rock 1974 What is the relationship between me (Mike Uff) and Lorraine Rock Thanks! Mike

4th Cousin twice removed????? Maureen

It's not quite as simple as that... The way I had it explained to me, She is your fourth cousin twice removed, but you are her sixth cousin twice removed upwards... The logic behind this is that if she had the same relationship to you as you to her, there would be no way of differentiating between your grandparent's fourth cousin and the grandchild of your fouth cousin. Both would be described as 'fourth cousin twice removed.' Instead, what you do is calculate the relationship, as if she were the same generation as you, (fourth cousin) and then adjust for her actual generation (twice removed). From her point of view, she calculates as if YOU were part of her generation (sixth cousin), and then adjusts for generation (twice removed upwards). Of course, there are probably several ways of calculating these relationships, none of them completely correct! :) Cheers! Gordon

I love a tree program - as that works all that out for you. lol I use Legacy and it has a great Relationship Calculator.

I agree with the first reply given, He is your first cousin twice removed. (your grandfather was his cousin, your father his cousin once removed and you are his cousin twice removed). Kath. x

nudge for me as never understood that stuff !

If you have a program such as Family Tree Maker, there will be an option to work it out for you. In FTM it is under Tools, Relationship Calculator.

Great thread as I had no idea how the relationships worked either.

In my calculation, which I have confirmed with both online relationship calculators and also my FTM program calculator, you and Lorraine are 4th cousins twice removed. It works both ways - you are her 4th cousin twice removed and she is your 4th cousin twice removed. Liz