What the heck is Tonks relationship to Sirius!?!!?

Question

Okay, Tonks' mum is Andromeda Black Tonks, Sirius' favourite cousin. Then, shouldn't Tonks be Sirius' niece, not his second cousin? Second cousins are people whose parents are FIRST cousins. Then how come they say that Tonks is Sirius second cousin, when he is her mum's cousin?!! Does that make sense at all? I seriously do not get the freaking concept!!! Someone please help me get it!

Okay, I read the first batch of answers. Thanks for the answers by the way! But, lets say you have a relative(it's still related to the question) and he's your mum's first cousin, would that make him your 2nd cousin or your uncle? And what if he has children, would they be your 3rd or 2nd?

Answer 1

I don't think so. Ok Sirius & Andromenda (Tonk's mom) are first cousin's. So Tonk's would be a second cousin, not a niece because a niece is only if Sirius & Andromenda are siblings. Actually if Sirius had kids they would be Tonks second cousin's. So I guess it would just be his cousins' daughter. But second cousin is just easier to say.

Answer 2

No, Tonks would be his niece if Sirius was Andromeda's brother . One way of reckoning cousins says that the child of your first cousin is your second cousin. I'd say it is first cousin, once removed. However that still does not make Sirius Tonk's uncle, except some families call older cousins "uncle" informally.

wl

Answer 3

I think that when they call you uncle it makes you feel old because my friend has that problem. So they decided to call themselves cousins. JKR is not ´perfect (especially after the Grindeldore incident) and made a mistake

Answer 4

there's an article in wikipedia that explains it all - charts, mathematical equations and more! i think the way you analyzed it works only in the phils., i also got confused once, when i first read in some book about cousins-once or twice removed. so, i looked it up.

Answer 5

Rowling could have been very tired when she wrote that part. Probably overlooked it.