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Last Updated August 8, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n Ancestry 50% Off Gift Memberships for Black Friday (Gift to Anyone, Even Yourself!)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n No matter how long you\u2019ve studied your family\u2019s history, you may still find yourself asking, What is a second cousin?<\/strong><\/em> or Wait, what does once removed mean again?<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t feel bad; determining cousin relationships can be confusing\u00a0\u2013 even the most experienced genealogists still have to consult a cousin chart every now and then. <\/span><\/p>\n And while you may only really<\/em> find yourself caring about these designations during a family reunion or after taking a DNA test, it can be very helpful to understand how they work in general.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As you build your own family tree online, most genealogy programs will calculate cousin relationships for you and include those designations in an individual\u2019s profile (although this only works if you have included and properly identified yourself in the tree.)<\/span><\/p>\n Make Instant Discoveries in Your Family Tree Now Imagine adding your family tree to a simple website and getting hundreds of new family history discoveries instantly.<\/b><\/p>\n MyHeritage is offering 2 free weeks of access to their extensive collection of 20 billion historical records, as well as their matching technology that instantly connects you with new information about your ancestors<\/b>. Sign up using the link below to find out what you can uncover about your family. Discover New Genealogy Records Instantly<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Also, as DNA studies become more refined and better integrated into genealogy programs like Ancestry and MyHeritage, technology will use our genetic connections to determine who is a second cousin and who is twice removed, then present the results to us in a neat little package \u2014 but as we\u2019ll see, this determination is not just yet an exact science.<\/span><\/p>\n For these reasons, learning how to identify a first, second, or third cousin relationship and determine how \u201cremoved\u201d they are \u2013 without a chart or genealogy program \u2013 is still a crucial skill for family historians to master \u2026 and it all starts with a basic understanding of familial relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n Many people will use the term cousin<\/strong> loosely to refer to someone they know is related in some way, even if they\u2019re not exactly sure how. As genealogists, though, we often want more specific labels for our familial relationships and the general term \u201ccousin\u201d just won\u2019t do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If a biological relation in your family tree is not direct ancestor, or a sibling of your direct ancestor (aunt or uncle), then there is a good likelihood that they are a cousin of some sort. These relationships are calculated based on the number of generations to the most recent common ancestor (that you and your cousin share) on your mother or father\u2019s line.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Removal is added by calculating the cousin relationship first, and then the difference between<\/strong> your generational removal from that ancestor and your cousin\u2019s (two generations vs three for instance).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is where cousin labels like \u201cfirst, second, etc.\u201d and \u201conce removed, twice removed, etc.\u201d come into play. A person who shares great-grandparents (but not grandparents), for instance, is your second cousin<\/strong>. A second cousin\u2019s child is your second cousin once removed<\/strong> because they are in a different generation than you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 20 Billion Genealogy Records Are Free for 2 Weeks Get two full weeks of free access to more than 20 billion genealogy records right now. You\u2019ll also gain access to the MyHeritage discoveries tool that locates information about your ancestors automatically<\/b> when you upload or create a tree. What will you discover about your family\u2019s past?<\/p>\n Claim My Free Record Access Now<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s take look at these designations in more detail.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Simply put, first cousins share grandparents and about 12.5% of their DNA (this can vary quite a bit). The parents of first cousins are siblings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the chart below shows, first cousins are in the same generation with one another, even if they are far apart in age. For example, I have first cousins who are closer to my mother\u2019s age than mine! However, we both called the same person \u201cGranny\u201d and our parents were siblings, so we are definitely first cousins. <\/span><\/p>\n You can also simply count the generations between you and this common ancestor<\/strong>, so your parents, which is 1, hence a first cousin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A second cousin is someone that you share a great-grandparent with (usually both great-grandparents)<\/strong>. Second cousins share about 3.2% of their genetic material, on average.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Your parent and your cousin\u2019s parent are first cousins, and one of your grandparents (such as your great-grandfather) was a sibling of your cousin\u2019s grandparent. Remember: The first, second, etc. designation is determined by the grandparent you share with a cousin of your same generation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is why when two people share a great grandparent as their MRCA (your grandparents were siblings) they are second cousins.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Using this logic, we can just as easily figure out more distant cousin labels. Your third cousin, for instance, is someone of your same generation with whom you share a common great-great-grandparent. Your great-grandparents were siblings, your grandparents were first cousins, and your parents were second cousins.<\/span><\/p>\n Your fourth cousin would be someone you share a great-great-great grandparent with. There are 4 generations between you and that shared ancestor \u2013 you<\/em> > parent > grandparent > great-grandparent > great-great-grandparent<\/strong> > great-great-great-grandparent<\/em>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The removed designation comes into play when a cousin is born into a different generation than you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now, just to be perfectly clear, when we say \u201cgeneration,\u201d we\u2019re not referring to Boomers, Gen Xers, or Millennials. Those demographic labels were created in the 20th century to help businesses and advertisers understand the different attitudes, motivations, and shared historical experiences of a group of people born within a roughly 20-year span. So, just because you have a cousin who witnessed World War II, while you were just a kid when the Vietnam War ended, doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019re of different ancestral generations.<\/span><\/p>\n Your first cousin once removed, then, is the child of your first cousin.<\/strong> You and your first cousin once removed do not share a common grandparent, because you were born in different generations of your family line. Your grandparent is their great-grandparent, your great-grandparent is their great-great-grandparent, and so on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If your first cousin once removed has a child, that child is now two generations away from you, and would therefore be your first cousin twice removed (or, two generations removed from you). In other words, that child is your first cousin\u2019s grandchild.<\/span><\/p>\n Your second cousin twice removed is the grandchild of your second cousin. They are two generations away from you, because, remember \u2014 you and your second cousin are of the same generation and share a great-grandparent.<\/span><\/p>\n The more generations that separate you and a cousin, and the further back you have to trace your family tree to determine if you share a common great-grandparent, the more numbers you\u2019ll have to add to your cousin relationship. Calculating these when it comes to a distant relative or long deceased person in your tree can seem difficult, but once you have a tree laid out where you can count the generations you will always be able to with the advice in this guide \u2013 whether that\u2019s a fifth cousin or a second cousin 12 times removed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Once you understand that you\u2019re counting generations to determine how removed you are from a person, and tracking your grandparents to pinpoint whether you have a first, second, or third cousin kinship, though, you\u2019ve mastered the most important tools to calculating cousin relationships!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for a quick reference to help you with these determinations, check out <\/span>Family History Daily\u2019s handy dandy Cousin Relationship Chart here<\/span> or read our article for more details on the simple math needed for cousin relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n As mentioned, full cousins share, in common, two people who produced children in the same generation, The cousins are descended from different children that these two people produced. <\/span><\/p>\n If we only share one of those ancestors (in a single generation), that person would have less genetical material in common and we may call them a half-cousin (such as a half first cousin). Although, generally, this designation is removed for simplicity, it can cause some confusion when determining relationships after a DNA test.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some family trees include a somewhat rare, but not unheard-of cousin relationship: Double first cousins. These are cousins of the same generation who share the same two sets of grandparents. This scenario occurs when two siblings marry two siblings from another family; the two couples\u2019 children will be double first cousins.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s say the Mr. and Mrs. Jones have a son and a daughter and Mr. and Mrs. Smith also have a son and a daughter. Imagine that the Jones daughter meets and marries the Smith son. At the wedding, the bride\u2019s brother falls hopelessly in love with the groom\u2019s sister, and they eventually marry. The children of each couple will be double first cousins.<\/span><\/p>\n Because ISOGG is a respected organization and its members are among the top genetic genealogists in the field, we can trust that the Average Autosomal DNA chart above is quite accurate. The key word in that title, though, is \u201cAverage,\u201d because when determining familial relationships using only DNA, chances are you\u2019re not going to share an <\/span>exact<\/span><\/i> percentage or amount of centimorgans with every person with whom you share a certain relationship. <\/span><\/p>\n In fact, ISOGG states that \u201cknown second cousins on average share 212.5 centiMorgans (cMs), but in extreme cases can actually share as little as 47 cMs or as much as 760 cMs.\u201d That\u2019s a pretty wide range!<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at my AncestryDNA results. The chart says I should share 50%, or 3,400 centimorgans, of DNA with my mother, but according to AncestryDNA, I share 3,476 cMs. It\u2019s close, but not exactly 3,400. <\/span><\/p>\n Likewise, I should share 50%, or 2,550 cMs, with my sister, but in reality, we share 2,578 cMs, which AncestryDNA estimates as 46% to 53%. I should share 1,700 cMs with my maternal uncle, but I share 1,810 cMs. My numbers aren\u2019t exact, but they are very close to the average guidelines provided by the ISOGG organization.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s look at some cousin matches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ancestry has only tagged one of my DNA matches, Amy, as a cousin who is \u201cremoved.\u201d Amy and I share 510 cMs and 7% of DNA. <\/span>The averages for a first cousin once removed, according to ISOGG, are 425 cMs and 6.25% of DNA; again, this is pretty close. <\/span><\/p>\n But look at my next match, Jean. We share even more cMs (464 cMs) and also 7% of DNA, but Ancestry has estimated only that Jean and I are either first or second cousins \u2014 a relationship I also share with my third cousin match, Scott.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My point here is that although charts like ISOGG\u2019s provide excellent reference points for average shared DNA, cMs and percentages alone most likely can\u2019t definitively determine a specific cousin relationship for you. For that, you\u2019ll need to use the old-fashioned methods of charting generations and family connections that we\u2019ve shared in this article. As with pretty much every aspect of genealogy, the tried-and-true research methods are usually some of the best \u2014 and most fun!<\/span><\/p>\n By Patricia Hartley<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Some More Help if You Need It:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cousin Chart\u00a0Generation Math Guide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What Kind of a Cousin Are They? How to Make Sense of These Boggling Relationships Last Updated August 8, 2023 Ancestry 50% Off Gift Memberships for Black Friday (Gift to Anyone, Even Yourself!) No matter how long you\u2019ve studied your family\u2019s history, you may still find yourself asking, What is a second cousin? or Wait, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-guides","tag-db"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Understanding Cousin Relationships, Such as Second Cousin Once Removed (and Other Confusing Terms)<\/span><\/h2>\n
What is a cousin?<\/span><\/h3>\n
What is a first cousin?<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"First](\"http:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Gen-1.png\")
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/p>\nWhat is a second cousin?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"Second](\"http:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Gen-2.png\")
<\/picture><\/noscript>Using some math, we can calculate it as the number of generations counting back to your most recent common ancestor (MRCA) minus 1<\/strong> (parent> grandparent > great-grandparent minus 1 = 2) or simply the number of generations between<\/em> you and the common ancestor<\/strong> (in this case two, parent and grandparent). <\/span><\/p>\nHow about third or fourth cousins?<\/span><\/h3>\n
So, what is a first cousin once removed?<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"First](\"http:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Gen-3.png\")
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/p>\nWhat is a second cousin twice removed?<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"Second](\"http:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Gen-4.png\")
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/p>\nUnderstanding a Half Cousin<\/h3>\n
Double Cousins Explained<\/h3>\n
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<\/picture><\/noscript>How accurate are DNA percentages and centimorgans?<\/span><\/h3>\n
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