First Cousin Once Removed??

Most people have a good understanding of basic relationship terms such as mother, father, aunt, uncle, brother, and sister but what about the relationship terms that we don't use in everyday speech? Terms like "second cousin" and "first cousin, once removed"? We don't tend to speak about our relationships in such exact terms (cousin seems good enough when you are introducing one person to another), so most of us aren't familiar with what these words mean. When working on your family history it is handy to know how to describe family relationships more exactly. The definitions below should help.

Relationship Terms

First Cousin: Your first cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you. In other words, they are the children of your aunts and uncles.
Second Cousin: Your second cousins are the people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents.
Third, Fourth, Fifth Cousins: Your third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, fourth cousins have the same great-great-great-grandparents, and so on.
Removed: 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 so the word "removed" is not used to describe your relationship.

Once Removed: This means 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: This means there is a two-generation difference. You are two generations younger then a first cousin of your grandmother so you and your grandmother's first cousin are first cousins, twice removed.

Relationship Chart

Now that you have an idea of what these different words mean, take a look at the chart below. This is a relationship chart and it can help you figure out how different people in your family are related.

Pick two people in your family and figure out which ancestor they have in common.
Look at the top row of the chart and find the first person's relationship to the common ancestor.
Look at the far left column of the chart and find the second person's relationship to the common ancestor.
Determine where the row and column containing those two relationships meet.

COMMON ANCESTOR	Child	Grandchild	G-Grandchild	G-G-Grandchild
Child	Brother or Sister	Nephew or Niece	Grand-Nephew or Niece	G-Grand-Nephew or Niece
Grandchild	Nephew or Niece	First Cousin	First Cousin Once Removed	First Cousin Twice Removed
G-Grandchild	Grand-Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Once Removed	Second Cousin	Second Cousin Once Removed
G-G-Grandchild	G-Grand- Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Twice Removed	Second Cousin Once Removed	Third Cousin