s/o Explain to Me Cousins---2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. Removed, Not Removed, ???

[umsami]

I know that my first cousins are the children of my parents' brothers and sisters.

 

 

Help me to understand all of the other terminology, please.

 

 

Thanks :)

Edited March 6, 2018 by umsami

[wendyroo]

CGP Grey has never led me astray...

 

[Scarlett]

https://www.google.com/search?q=cousins+chart&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

 

This one is helpful too

Edited March 6, 2018 by Scarlett

[KungFuPanda]

First cousins share a grandfather, second cousins share a great-grandfather, etc. The ‘removed’ people are the offshoots that don’t fit into those categories.

 

Your first cousin’s child is first cousin once removed. That same child is your child’s second cousin.

[vonfirmath]

First cousins share a grandfather, second cousins share a great-grandfather, etc. The ‘removed’ people are the offshoots that don’t fit into those categories.

 

Your first cousin’s child is first cousin once removed. That same child is your child’s second cousin.

 

Your parents' siblings are your aunt and uncles.

 

Your parents' siblings kids are your cousins (first cousins)

 

Your first cousins' kids are second cousins to your kids.

 

Your first cousins' grandkids are third cousins to your grandkids.

 

Etc.

 

(I find this easier to figure out going down the chart than up.

 

If you have two random related people. Figure out which relative is the common relative. Then go down generations. The siblings is not numbered. The next generation is "1st", then "2nd" etc. If you two are different generations then that is where you start doing the once removed/twice removed thing (How many generations apart you are in reference to that common relative)

 

(I actually had to figure this out relatively quickly after marrying my husband.  It turns out his family tree is pretty barren. When I married him, they knew their family tree going back to my husband's great-great-great grandfather and my husband and his sister are the only two children of his generation in the line. His father has a first cousin still alive. His great-grandfather was one of 6 children. But between one thing and another, it has all come down to 2 in my husband's generation (And now two in the next generation beause we have two kids)

 

AFter I married him, I found a fellow named Roy who had been working on a genealogy with the same last name and in the location of where I knew the family homestead had been. So I contacted him. It turns out he's of my father-in-law's generation, but the common ancestor is the GRANDFATHER of the great-great-grandfather that my husband's family had known about (So my husband's great(5x)-grandfather.), making him a 5th cousin to my father-in-law and a fifth cousin, once removed to my husband and I.  He is a fifth cousin, twice removed to my kids.

 

 

(And if he had kids, I'd have no problems with my kids marrying them. It really doesn't feel too close at all.)

Edited March 6, 2018 by vonfirmath

[Farrar]

I think of the removed as being your parents' cousins. So, I grew up hanging out with my father's first cousin, who was my age. I was the oldest child of my father, who was in turn the oldest child of his mother, who was the oldest child of her mother (my great-grandmother). My cousin was the youngest child of her father, who was the youngest child of his mother (her grandmother). Her grandmother was my great-grandmother.

 

In other words, the generations thing isn't age.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Farrar

[suenos]

Think of it in generational lines.  The number comes first. Once a 1st cousin, every generation that follows is your 1st cousin "removed." First cousins have a grandparent in common. 

So your 1st cousin's kids are your 1st cousins, once removed (1 generation removed from you).  Your 1st cousin's kids' kids' are your 1st cousins twice removed.  And so on.  

 

Your kids and your 1st cousin's kids are 2nd cousins to each other (but 1st cousins once removed to you/your cousin). Second cousins have a great-grandparent in common.   The "removed" continues down the generational line.  So my kids will be 2nd cousins once removed to my cousin's kids' kids. 

 

If your kids and your cousin's kids have kids...those kids will be 3rd cousins to each other - they share a great-great-grandparent.  And so on. 

 

Clear as mud, no?  

 

Sorted this out before a big family reunion last summer - it was so fun - lots of people got an instant upgrade! (from second/third cousin to first cousins removed).   

Edited March 6, 2018 by suenos

[unsinkable]

In our family, it works like this:

 

"We had to remove your a-hole cousin from the reunion for the third time when he found a way back in through the garage and the cellar the first two times."

[Storygirl]

I think of it as standing on a ladder.

 

The first cousins stand together on the top rung. They are side by side.

 

The second cousins stand together on the second rung down. They are the children of the first cousins.

 

The third cousins stand together on the third rung down. They are the grandchildren of the first cousins.

 

Everyone is lined up neat and tidy.

 

But when the cousins are not standing on the same rung, they are "removed" from each other by the number of steps down the ladder that they are.

 

So you have a first cousin who wants to know how she is related to her first cousin's grandchild. They are cousins, but they are not standing on the same generational rung of the ladder. They would be first cousins (start with the relationship where they are standing together on the ladder) twice removed (two steps away from each other on the ladder).

 

So you could be third cousins three times removed. That means how you are related to your third cousin's great-grandchild.

 

I am not a visual person at all, but this helps me.

 

 

[Catwoman]

In our family, it works like this:

 

"We had to remove your a-hole cousin from the reunion for the third time when he found a way back in through the garage and the cellar the first two times."

Thank you for the clear and concise explanation. :D

 

It’s all about the science. ;)

[Catwoman]

I think of it as standing on a ladder.

 

The first cousins stand together on the top rung. They are side by side.

 

The second cousins stand together on the second rung down. They are the children of the first cousins.

 

The third cousins stand together on the third rung down. They are the grandchildren of the first cousins.

 

Everyone is lined up neat and tidy.

 

But when the cousins are not standing on the same rung, they are "removed" from each other by the number of steps down the ladder that they are.

 

So you have a first cousin who wants to know how she is related to her first cousin's grandchild. They are cousins, but they are not standing on the same generational rung of the ladder. They would be first cousins (start with the relationship where they are standing together on the ladder) twice removed (two steps away from each other on the ladder).

 

So you could be third cousins three times removed. That means how you are related to your third cousin's great-grandchild.

 

I am not a visual person at all, but this helps me.

Thank you!

 

I think I fell off the ladder and landed on my head at some point, though, because everything got a little fuzzy after a while.

[unsinkable]

Thank you for the clear and concise explanation. :D

 

It’s all about the science. ;)

Don't forget the Beer Math (which actually has a lot to do with the cousin being removed).

[Ravin]

I learned to keep this straight by examining hobbit genealogies. 

[Catwoman]

Don't forget the Beer Math (which actually has a lot to do with the cousin being removed).

You were one of those really smart STEM kids, weren’t you?

[unsinkable]

You were one of those really smart STEM kids, weren’t you?

No, I was one of the majors that posters on the College Board make fun of.

 

One of the made fun of majors.

 

Of which those who was made fun of. Majorly.