this is the ancestral findings podcast number 49 have you ever wondered what
a second cousin three times removed is what is removed even mean in genealogy
join me today and I'll show you how to figure out your cousin relationships
do you know your cousin's not the cousins you grew up with but the many cousins you are going
to encounter in your genealogical research once you get far enough into your genealogy research
you will be faced with a list of cousins of varying degrees of closeness to you making
sense of just how close those cousins are to you is key to understanding your family tree as a
whole as well as where those cousins fall on it knowing your exact cousin relationships can also
help you verify DNA matches if you do DNA testing you will probably hear the term removed as well as
a variety of numbers in association with cousin relationships when reading about genealogy these
relationships are significant to your research your first cousin 3 times removed your second
cousin one time removed your third cousin 4 times removed and more are all meaningful relationships
but what do they mean and how do you figure out just how you are connected to a particular
cousin it's easy once you have a particular technique down you can figure out exact cause and
relationships in your head cousin relationships that go back farther in time can be worked out by
drawing a chart and Counting you will amaze your friends and relatives with your newfound cousin
calculating ability and your genealogy research will become a lot easier and more meaningful to
you it's a must-have skill for any serious genealogist how do you start calculating a
cousin relationship starts with your most common shared ancestor this may be a grandparent or a
25 time grandparent or anything in between or beyond once you have the shared common ancestor
between you and a cousin you can figure out your precise cousin relationship with ease it's all a
matter of generations counting generations your shared common ancestor had children
the children of those children are first cousins also known as generation 1 the children of first
cousins are second cousins or generation to the children of second cousins are third cousins or
generation three and so on so for example if your great-grandmother is the shared common ancestor
with a cousin look at where the two of you stand on the family tree say your great-grandparents
had a daughter and a son that daughter had a daughter and the son had a son the daughter of
the daughter and the son of the son our first cousins say the daughter of the daughter is
your mother so the son of the son and your mother are first cousins if the son of the son has a son
that makes you and that son second cousins because you share the same generation generation two from
your common ancestor if you and your second cousin each have a child your children will
be third cousins or generation three from their common ancestor your great-grandmother cousins
who share the same generation in the family are always a straight number in the cousin tree with
no removed required when it comes to figuring out if you are removed from a cousin you still
count generations it might actually be helpful to use a chart to do this as it is easier to see
how many generations removed you are from someone if you draw it on some paper check the show notes
for a link to a detailed generations chart on ancestral findings calm there are two methods
of doing this one involves generations before you and one involves generations after you generations
after you are easiest start with a cousin with whom you share a generation if that cousin has
a child that child is one generation removed from you if that cousin has a grandchild the
grandchild is two generations removed from you and so on so if your third cousin has a child
that child is your third cousin once removed the grandchild of your third cousin is your
third cousin two times removed each additional generation that is added to the family on your
cousin's line is another generation removed from you the same thing goes for your children in
their own cousin relationship with your cousin's children the child of your first cousin is your
first cousin once removed your child is your first cousin once-removed second cousin your
grandchild is your first cousin once-removed second cousin one time removed just count back
the number of generations from where you and your straight numbered cousin connect going
back in time it's the same process in Reverse pick a distant ancestor count down the number
of straight numbered cousins in the family line choose any straight numbered pair then count up
the number of generations removed you are from that person for example if you discover someone
who is a third cousin to your grandmother you are two generations away from that third cousin your
father or mother being one generation removed than you so you are a third cousin two times removed
from your grandmother's third cousin once you learn to figure out which generations match up and
then count the generations removed you or another person are from that matched generation of cousins
you've got the whole cousin thing figured out it's not really hard at all figuring out cousins is all
just a matter of counting count the generations and you've got your cousin relationship sorted
join me for the next ancestral findings dot-com podcast as we talk about why a genealogical proof
standard is important and why you should use it in your genealogy research see you next time