What exactly are second/third/fourth cousins etc and cousins 'removed'?

Question

I'm really into family history and have gone quite a long way back but have never quite got my head round these terms. Sensible answers please - no guesses!

Answer 1

There is a four-color tree chart at
http://www.tedpack.org/cousins.html
if you count black and white as two colors.

Looking at the answers, I can see you are not alone in being confused. I had to draw it out to get it straight; I'm a visual person.

Children of siblings are first cousins.
Children of first cousins are second cousins.
Children of second cousins are third cousins and so on.

In all cases they may be closer; the children of your fourth cousin Harry will be siblings to each other, first cousins to Harry's sibling's children but fifth cousins to your children.

Removed comes in when you compare cousins up or down the generational levels.

Your first cousins' children are your first cousins once removed.
Your father and mother's first cousins are your first cousins once removed too.

Your first cousins' grandchildren are your first cousins, twice removed.

Your grandparents' cousins are yours, twice removed.

All these removed work for any degree of cousinhood. For instance, your grandparents' cousins can be 1C2R, 2C2R, 3C2R or 14C2R for that matter. (You have a gazillion 14th cousins.) They are all yours cousins too, twice removed.

In practice no one cares much beyond 2nd cousin or twice removed, unless there is something special. I worked with a fellow who was Daniel Boone's first cousin seven times removed, which means his 5th great grandmother was DB's 1C.

Answer 2

A cousin or first cousin shares the same set of grandparents as you. A second cousin shares the same set of great-grandparents as you. A third cousin shares the same set of great-great grandparents as you. A fourth cousin shares the same set of great-great-great grandparents as you, and so on and so forth.

If a cousin is "once removed" or "twice removed" or whatever, then that means they sit a generation or two away from you in your tree.

As an example, let's create a fictional family. We'll call them the SMITHs. Let us begin with John Smith who married Mary Jones in the year 1870 and had twelve children. Two of those children (we'll call them George and Fred) each married (lets say to Jane and Sarah) and had children of their own - one each, Mark and Clare, so at this point the family branches off on two separate directions.

Mark and Clare are first cousins because they share the same set of grandparents - ie., John and Mary.

Let's assume that Mark marries Brenda and they have a daughter Lucy. Let's also assume that Clare marries Barry and has a son Richard.

Richard and Lucy share the same set of great-grandparents (John & Mary) which makes them second cousins.

If Lucy married and had children, those offspring would sit on a different generational level to Lucy's second cousin Richard, which is where the term "removed" comes into play.

Most family tree programmes can work out family relationships for you which saves the bother of trying to work it all out. It is not an easy system to explain by any means.

Answer 3

o.k. the way I understand it is say theres princess and anna are
sisters. Im princess's daughter and cassandra is anna's daughter that makes us 1st cousins Cassandra and I . Now cassandra has tiffany tiffany is my 2nd cousin. But Say princess has a cousin John, because John is my mothers 1st cousin he is my cousin once removed.John's son would be my cousin twice removed. Oh somebody wants to drop pedigree ? I am the great,great,great I dont know how many greats, granddaughter of the 2nd and sixth presidents ot the U.S.

Answer 4

Second cousins share the same great-grandparents. Third cousins share the same great-great grandparents. Once-removeds come in where there are no common grandparents and a generation gap, so like the people above have said - mother's cousin is once removed, grandmother's cousin is twice removed, etc.

Answer 5

your parents brothers and sisters on both sides are the parents of your cousins, the children of your cousins would be second cousins and so on, to be removed means that a parent was divorced from the family, so the offspring would be a cousin removed. LF
this is according to Burkes peerage the stay of British society.
im doing my family tree thats how i know this to be accurate. LF

Answer 6

My 1st cousins are my parents nieces and nephews, my 1st cousins have children that makes thier children my 1st cousins once removed. If those children have children then they become my 1st cousins twice removed. So therefore my 1st cousins share my grandparents. My second cousins share my greatgrandparents. If my 2nd cousins have children then thier children are my 2nd cousins once removed and so on. The parent of your 2nd cousin is also a 1st cousin once removed (this same person is the 1st cousin of your parent). For further details and a helpful chart of consanguinity please go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin

Best wishes

Answer 7

(just for simplicity`s sake I am going to use the male gender throughout my explication so I don`t have to keep typing (or sister`s ) etc througout.)

You understand the concept of cousins : your father`s brother`s son is your 1st cousin.

2nd cousin - your father`s brother`s son`s son and your son would be 2nd cousins.

1st cousin once removed - your father`s brother`s son`s son and you (or your father`s brother`s son and your son)

It works like a ladder. The generations are rungs of the ladder. Generations have nothing to do with age but how people are related (like two first cousins)

When you are on equal rungs (generations) of the ladder you are full cousins whether it be 1st, 2nd etc.
When the rungs are crooked, then that means it is 1st cousin once romved, 3rd cousin twice removed etc.

The best illustrations I have seen are here :

http://www.ktb.net/~dwills/relationshipchart.htm

http://www.answers.com/topic/cousin-chart


Ladder chart (I understand relationships this way) :

http://delafe.com/familydirectory/consang.htm


Not so easy to understand (but to give you more info) :

http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/iss/gr/chart.htm

Answer 8

"removed" means removed by a generation, so you mothers cousin is your cousin once removed, and your grandfathers cousin is twice removed.
Second/third etc. would be your cousin's cousin (but not you, obviously) e.g. if Fred is your cousin by your Fathers brother, any cousins he has through his mothers siblings (i.e. not your blood relatives) would be his direct cousins but your second cousins. Clear?
It's usually only the aristocracy, squabling over titles and land, who get embroiled by such terms ; )

Answer 9

a second cousin is ur cousin's mother or father. as for the others - i int sure sowwi

Answer 10

second and third cousins are your parents cousins and grandparents cousins etc, but no idea bout cousins removed