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What
is a First Cousin, Twice Removed?
If someone
walked up to you and said, "Howdy, I'm your third cousin, twice removed,"
would you have any idea what they meant? Everyone has 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 definitions below
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 share
one set of the same great-grandparents with you.
Third,
fourth and fifth Cousins Your third cousins share one set of great-great-grandparents,
fourth cousins share one set of 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 that your grandparents),
so the word "removed" is not used to describe your relationship.
The
words "once removed" means 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 Simplify Everything
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
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.
Look
at the top row of the chart and find the first person's relationship to
the common ancestor.
Look
at the far left column of the chart and find the second person's relationship
to the common ancestor.
Determine
where the row and column containing those two relationships meet. That's
the relationship
common
ancestor |
Child |
Grandchild |
Great
Grandchild |
G-G-Grandchild |
Child |
Sister/Brother |
Niece/Nephew |
Grand-neice/nephew |
Great-grand
neice/nephew |
Grandchild |
Niece/Nephew |
First
Cousin |
First
Cousin/once removed |
First
cousin/twice removed |
Great
Grandchild |
Grand-niece/nephew |
First
Cousin, once removed |
Second
Cousin |
Second
Cousin, once removed |
Great-Great
Grandchild |
Great-grand
niece/nephew |
First
cousin, twice removed |
Second
cousin, once removed |
Third
Cousin |
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