General Chat

Working out first cousins is easy, but how do you work out further down the line? If your first cousin has a child, that child would be your 2nd cousin, but if you have a child too would the two children also be 2nd or third cousins to each other? Also where does the 'removed' come in as in people saying she is my 3rd cousin once removed? Thanks from Confussed!

Actually I always thought that th child of a first cousin was a second cousin, but they aren't - they are a first cousin once removed. A second cousin would be a grandchild descended from a sibling of your grandparents (can't think of a better way to describe it !). There's a chart on the web somewhere I'll find the URL for you.

Here's a definition... Question: Would someone please clarify the difference/distinction between someone who is your relative "removed" (ie, my first cousin once-removed), as opposed to "1st, 2nd, (ie, my 2nd cousin). Is a 2nd cousin the same as a 1st cousin once removed? Answer: If you go up (back in time) one generation, over a sibling, and then down (forward in time) one generation, those are first cousins. If you go up (back in time) two generations, over a sibling, and then down (forward in time) two generations, those are second cousins. If you go up (back in time) three generations, over a sibling, and then down (forward in time) three generations, those are third cousins. Get it? Now, if you go up (back in time) two generations, over a sibling, and then down (forward in time) one generation, those are first cousins, one generation removed. For instance, your grandfather's brother's daughter is your first cousin one generation removed, because she is your father's (or mother's) first cousin and you are one generation removed from your father. For instance, I do research with my great-grandfather's brother's granddaughter. My father is her second cousin (back two, over a sibling, down two), so she is my second cousin, one generation removed. Her son and daughter are my third cousins, because our respective great-grandfathers were brothers. -- [email protected] (Mark Faucette) post to Soc.genealogy.methods Sun Apr 14 20:06:43 1996 A "removed" cousin is of a different generation than you are. I am first cousin once removed to my father's first cousin. The daughter of my father's first cousin and I are second cousins. My father's first cousin is also a first cousin once removed to me. The relationship is reciprocal. -- Dorothy A. Koenig - post to Soc.genealogy.methods Mon Apr 15 07:55:13 1996

I let my family tree programme work out mine - it's easier.

This chart makes it easy http://www.rhodesfamily(.)org(.)uk/people/relationship.html remove brackets

That's the one I was looking for !!!! All the "distant" cousins I've met on here so far seem to be 3rd cousins (ie Gt Grandchildren of siblings of my Gt Grandparents) - or 4th.

Here's another "relationship-calculator": http://www(.)shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/krakow/relations.asp Very easy-to-use.

Thank you for this, its a great help, especially the web sites, Special mention to Paul, I read you mail and was more confussed!! but after reading it a couple of times and working some relationships out on paper it now makes sense. Thank you Now I just have to explain it to my mother!!! Tracie

with great difficulty, took me two days to realise how i was related to someone on here lol

Hi Tracie, You can buy a very good chart from genealogy printers on www(.)genealogyprinters(.)com for £2. They offer a very good service too, I ordered late on Wednesday night arrived Saturday morning with Good Friday in between. Sue

drawing it out always helps me... I've tried to explain to my parents, but they're still adamant that my cousins son is my second cousin. never mind lol

There is a very good Family Relationship Chart on http://www.vango.info/family_relationship_chart.htm. You need to find a common grandparent and find your relationship to that grandparent along the top row. Then locate the other person's relationship to that grandparent along the left-hand column - follow the lines along until they meet and you will find your family relationship. Where you are not evenly related to that common grandparent (i.e., where one is a grandchild and the other a great grandchild to that same ancestor) you are so many times "removed". Where you are evenly related you become second, third, fourth etc cousins. Hope this helps - it has only just clicked with me. Regards, Kathy x

Here's one for a tester: My nana's sister Anna Maria Spengler married Raymond Victor Byers. Raymond was the son of my great grandmother's (unrelated to Anna) brother. Anna and Ray had a daughter, Barbara..... what kind of cousn is Barbara to me because she's 'doubly' related??? Chloe

Haven't seen the chart, but it's like a cascading ladder with two legs (that sounds peculiar). However, all logical. The children of your parents' brothers and sisters are your first cousins. The children of your first cousins are your first cousins once removed. Their children will be your first cousins twice removed. Etc, etc. Your first cousins will be first cousins once removed to your own children. However, your children and the children of your first cousins are second cousins. Apply the earlier paragraph again. Eg, children of a second cousin are your second cousins once removed. Etc, etc. Your grandchildren and the grandchildren of your first cousins are third cousins. Children in the next generation are fourth cousins. Etc, etc. My grandparents on my dad's side were third cousins from an extended Welsh family. There were three brothers (among other childen), and I knew the descendants of two of them from being a grandson of two branches united. I had a phone call out of the blue a few years ago from the descendant of the third brother in my dad's generation, (making him a fourth cousin once removed!), whom I had never heard of. Living in Canada since the war, but earlier grew up just down the road from where I was then living in Wiltshire. Talk about a small world. Counting sheep (or fifth cousins 25 times removed!), Philip