Donald E Bolstad K9DEB

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RELATIONSHIPS

Introduction
If someone walked up to you and said "Howdy, I'm your third cousin, twice removed," would you have any idea what they meant? Most people have a good understanding of basic relationship words such as "mother," "father," "aunt," "uncle," "brother," and "sister." But what about the relationship terms that we don't use in everyday speech?
Terms like "second cousin" and "first cousin, once removed"? We don't tend to speak about our relationships in such exact terms ("cousin" seems good enough when you are introducing one person to another), so most of us aren't familiar with what these words mean.

Relationship Terms

Sometimes, especially when working on your family history, it's handy to know how to describe your family relationships more exactly.
The following definitions should help you out:

Cousin (a.k.a "first cousin")
    Your first cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you. In other words, they are the children of your aunts and uncles.
Second Cousin
    Your second cousins are the people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cousins
    Your third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, fourth cousins have the same great-great-great-grandparents, and so on.

Removed
    When the word "removed" is used to describe a relationship, it indicates that the two people are from different generations. You and your first cousins are in the same generation (two generations younger than your grandparents), so the word "removed" is not used to describe your relationship.
     The words "once removed" mean that there is a difference of one generation. For example, your mother's first cousin is your first cousin, once removed. This is because your mother's first cousin is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. This one-generation difference equals "once removed."
     Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. You are two generations younger than a first cousin of your grandmother, so you and your grandmother's first cousin are first cousins, twice removed.

Relationship Charts
Now that you have an idea of what these different words mean, take a look at the chart below. It's called a relationship chart, and it can help you figure out how different people in your family are related. It's much simpler than it looks just follow the instructions.
Instructions for Using a Relationship Chart:
1. Pick two people in your family and figure out which ancestor they have in common. For example, if you chose yourself and a cousin, you would have a grandparent in common.
2. Look at the top row of the chart and find the first person's relationship to the common ancestor.
3. Look at the far left column of the chart and find the second person's relationship to the common ancestor.
4. Determine where the row and column containing those two relationships intersect.

Common Ancestor	Son (Daughter)	Grandchild	Great Grandchild	2nd Great Grandchild	3rd Great Grandchild	4th Great Grandchild	5th Great Grandchild	6th Great Grandchild	7th Great Grandchild	8th Great Grandchild
Son (Daughter)	Brother (Sister)	Nephew (Niece)	Grand Nephew	Great Grand Nephew	2nd Great Grand nephew	3rd Great Grand nephew	4th Great Grand nephew	5th Great Grand nephew	6th Great Grand nephew	7th Great Grand nephew
Grandchild	Nephew Niece	1(st) Cousin	1st Cousin 1 Removed	1st Cousin 2 Removed	1st Cousin 3 Removed	1st Cousin 4 Removed	1st Cousin 5 Removed	1st Cousin 6 Removed	1st Cousin 7 Removed	1st Cousin 8 Removed
Great Grandchild	Grand nephew	1st Cousin 1 Removed	2(nd) Cousin	2nd Cousin 1 Removed	2nd Cousin 2 Removed	2nd Cousin 3 Removed	2nd Cousin 4 Removed	2nd Cousin 5 Removed	2nd Cousin 6 Removed	2nd Cousin 7 Removed
2nd Great Grandchild	Great Grand Nephew	1st Cousin 2 Removed	2nd Cousin 1 Removed	3(rd) Cousin	3rd Cousin 1 Removed	3rd Cousin 2 Removed	3rd Cousin 3 Removed	3rd Cousin 4 Removed	3rd Cousin 5 Removed	3rd Cousin 6 Removed
3rd Great Grandchild	2nd Great Grand nephew	1st Cousin 3 Removed	2nd Cousin 2 Removed	3rd Cousin 1 Removed	4(th) Cousin	4th Cousin 1 Removed	4th Cousin 2 Removed	4th Cousin 3 Removed	4th Cousin 4 Removed	4th Cousin 5 Removed
4th Great Grandchild	3rd Great Grand nephew	1st Cousin 4 Removed	2nd Cousin 3 Removed	3rd Cousin 3 Removed	4th Cousin 1 Removed	5(th) Cousin	5th Cousin 1 Removed	5th Cousin 2 Removed	5th Cousin 3 Removed	5th Cousin 4 Removed
5th Great Grandchild	4th Great Grand nephew	1st Cousin 5 Removed	2nd Cousin 4 Removed	3rd Cousin 3 Removed	4th Cousin 2 Removed	5th Cousin 1 Removed	6(th) Cousin	6th Cousin 1 Removed	6th Cousin 2 Removed	6th Cousin 3 Removed
6th Great Grandchild	5th Great Grand nephew	1st Cousin 6 Removed	2nd Cousin 5 Removed	3rd Cousin 4 Removed	4th Cousin 3 Removed	5th Cousin 2 Removed	6th Cousin 1 Removed	7(th) Cousin	7th Cousin 1 Removed	7th Cousin 2 Removed
7th Great Grandchild	6th Great Grand nephew	1st Cousin 7 Removed	2nd Cousin 6 Removed	3rd Cousin 5 Removed	4th Cousin 4 Removed	5th Cousin 3 Removed	6th Cousin 2 Removed	7th Cousin 1 Removed	8(th) Cousin	8th Cousin 1 Removed
8th Great Grandchild	7th Great Grand nephew	1st Cousin 8 Removed	2nd Cousin 7 Removed	3rd Cousin 6 Removed	4th Cousin 5 Removed	5th Cousin 4 Removed	6th Cousin 3 Removed	7th Cousin 2 Removed	8th Cousin 1 Removed	9(th) Cousin

For More Information Click here COUSINS From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Copyright © 2008 - Donald E Bolstad -- Most recent revision 02 Mar 2008