WHAT RELATION ARE YOU?
I had always thought that the term "fourth cousin twice removed", or something to that effect, was something that my snooty Aunt Hortense (fictional) might say if she really meant to say that she didn't want to claim any close kin. And when I got this computer program, it had the feature of being able to show me the relationship between any two individuals in our family tree. So I had great fun in looking up my relationship with various family members. I found that Joe Plemons is my fourth cousin. Janet Webb is the wife of my fourth cousin - once removed, and this made me wonder just what the term "removed" really meant.
"Removed", in this instance, means that you are on a different generation level than that of someone else. That is, if we count back until we find an ancestor that is common to both of us, and we count the same number, then we are cousins – no “removed” to it. But if one of us has to count more generation steps, then we are “removed” from the other by the difference of the counts. For example, if my grand-father and your great-grandfather is the same man, then we are once removed. Also, a child born to my grandfather, late in life, might be much younger than I, but is still my aunt or uncle, because it is the brother or sister of my father. So we can have people who are "removed", generation-wise, and still be close to the same ages.
Now, a question: What relation to you would be the son of your first cousin? My first thought might be "second cousin", which would be wrong. He would be your first cousin - once removed. So where does this second, third, fourth cousin come in? Let's start with what we are familiar with. (I will use mostly male examples because this is where the name line goes, but you can see that these same rules apply to female also.)
The son of my brother would be my nephew, and his son - my grand-nephew, and so on. The son of the brother of my father would be my first cousin, his son - my first cousin once removed; his son - my first cousin twice removed, and so on.
Here is something that is curious but easy to remember: my father's brother is my uncle; my grand-father's brother is my grand-uncle; my great-grandfather's brother is my great-granduncle, and so on. And any son or daughter of an uncle, no matter whether he or she is great, grand, or what, is a first cousin. Sometimes they are "removed", if they are on a different generation level, but they are still a first cousin.
My second cousin (not removed) would be a descendant on the line going back to the brother of my great-grandfather. He would be on the same generation level as me. My third cousin's line would stretch back to the brother of my great-great-grandfather.
You know, I thought that this stuff was going to be confusing and this time I was right. I have made a crude little drawing that I hope will help. I hope that you are as fascinated by figuring out this puzzle as I am.
Tip: Find “You” in the right-side column. All relations shown would be with respect to “you”. .
I experimented with this chart by substituting names of my family line into it and then seeing what the computer would say the relationship was. I was surprised many times. Enjoy - Warren
RELATION CHART