What does it mean when relatives are reffered to as "removed"?

Question

I have heard things like "my second cousin twice removed" or "her great aunt once removed." What do they mean?

Answer 1

it's describing a generational "remove". Your first cousin "once removed" is your parent's first cousin. Your first counse "twice removed" is your Grandparent's first cousin. And so on.

Here's a chart to help you figure it all out

http://genealogy.about.com/library/nrelationshipchart.htm

Answer 2

I wrote an article about this 2 years ago. Check the link in the sources.

You can use a method called "Counting the Gs" First you determine the common ancestor (Grandparents (1 G), great grandparents (2 Gs), great great grandparents (3 Gs), etc.). Then figure out how many Gs there are between the common ancestor and each person and subtract the difference.

For instance if person A and the common ancestor have 3 Gs between them, and person B and the common ancestor have 2, then there is a difference of 1, meaning once removed. If there were a difference of 2, then it would be twice removed, etc.

The article goes into a lot more details!

Answer 3

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.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

"Removed" means removed by a generation.

Your first cousin once removed is your father's or mother's first cousin. Your first cousin twice removed is one of your grandparents' first cousins. It's vertical on your family tree.

The second, third, fourth etc. cousins are horizontal on your family tree. You second cousin is your cousin's cousin, and so on.

So, your second cousin twice removed would be your grandparent's cousin's cousin, or their children (which due to the generation gap is more likely- people generall stop keepin track after that point).

Answer 5

My dad's cousin is my ist cousin once removed. the once removed means a generation difference. He isn't my 1st cousin, he is my Dad's. It is just a generation thing. My grandmother's cousin would be my 1st cousin twice removed, and so on.

Answer 6

Here we go again. I have a son. My Aunt is his aunt once removed. My sister is his aunt. but our aunt (the sister of our mother) is his aunt once removed.

Answer 7

Not on the direct blood line - your grandmother's sister's children, for example.

Answer 8

I thought it had something to do with divorce myself.