When you hear people speaking about their cousins, you may hear some interesting things such as “Betty is my third cousin, twice removed”. When you hear these things, you may wonder who removed Betty or what she was removed from and why. Let’s take a look at who your cousins are, and how they get removed.
You probably know who your first cousins are, the people that have two of the same grandparents that you do. To say it a different way, they are the children of your aunts and uncles. Second cousins have the same great grandparents that you do, but not the same grandparents. Third cousins have, you guessed it, the same great great grandparents as you. Fourth, fifth, sixth, cousins continue in the same fashion.
To add another layer of confusion, the term “removed” comes into the mix when you are speaking about people that are not in the same generation. For example, you and your first cousins are in the same generation, so the word “removed” is not part of your relationship. Your mother has cousins though, and her first cousins are your first cousins once removed because they are one generation older than you are. If you are not already confused enough, here’s one more curve ball for you: if you are looking at very old records in your genealogy research and you come across the term “cousin”, you may have a hard time figuring out exactly how they fit into your family history picture because the term “cousin” was used much more loosely back then. It is not uncommon for very old records to label close relatives or friends as “cousins”.
You may find it helpful to write down all of the genealogy relationship terms that you have learned about here and elsewhere and keep the list handy in your research notebook so that you will not have to stop and think so hard about what it means when someone tells you that they are your third cousin, twice removed.