Classification of Cousins

Writing about our famous relatives got me to thinking about cousin classification so I looked it up. The level of a cousin depends on the number of generations to a common ancestor. A first cousin is someone who is two generations from your common ancestor. A second cousin is three generations from your common ancestor. A third cousin is four generations from a common ancestor and so on. What gets confusing is when a cousin is a different number of generations from the common ancestor than you. Each generation difference from your generation to the common ancestor is a generation 'removed.'


The chart above is the simplest way to break it down

This is different from what I have always thought. I thought second cousins were your parents' cousins. Your parents cousins are really your first cousins once removed because they are one generation removed from you to your common ancestor who is two generations from them. Your parents' cousins' children are actually your second cousins. You share a great-grand parent. A third cousin is your great-great-uncle/aunt's great-grandson/daughter. The number cousin you are when there are generations removed is determined by the shortest distance from either one of you to your common ancestor.

So, using the example of George H.W. Bush, Elizabeth Woodson's great-great-grandfather is the closest common relative. If you share a grandfather you are first cousins, great-grandfather you are second cousins, and great-great-grandfather, you are third cousins. She is his third cousin but the common ancestor is his 8th great-grandfather. That puts him 6 generations removed from the same relationship she has with the common ancestor therefore he is her 3rd cousin 6 times removed. Any questions?