Relationships

Occasionally we get asked about the names for family relationships, e.g.

What is a first cousin twice removed? 

The word cousin is usually used to describe people who share a common grandparent and who are two or more generations away from that grandparent.  In other words, the children of your Aunt or Uncle are your first cousins because the common link is your grandparent.  (But you and any brothers and sisters of yours are not cousins because your parents are only one generation away from you.)

A second cousin means that the link between you is one generation further back, so the link stems from a great-grandparent (so this is a child of your Great Aunt or Great Uncle rather than your Aunt or Uncle).  The simple way of remembering this is that the number of “greats/grands” of your common ancestor is the number used for the cousin relationship.

Next it helps to understand that removed is the label used to describe cousins from different generations. So a first cousin of your father is your first cousin, once removed and their child is your first cousin twice removed.

Almost all relationship terms indicate generational parity/seniority. For example, a niece is a generation later than her uncle and a greatgrandchild is three generations later than the greatgrandparent. However, in the case of cousins once (or more) removed, the designation works in both directions. For example, you and your cousin’s child are each other’s “first cousin once removed”.

Against that technical background, the charts reached by clicking the link below provide simpler ways of working out particular cases.

CLICK HERE FOR RELATIONSHIP CHARTS