Family Relationships

"Degrees of Cousinhood"

7		5G Grand Father/Mother
6		4G Grand Father/Mother						4G Grand Uncle/Aunt
5		3G Grand Father/Mother					3G Grand Uncle/Aunt	1C 5R
4		2G Grand Father/Mother				2G Grand Uncle/Aunt	1C 4R	2C 4R
3		Great Grand Father/Mother			Great Grand Uncle/Aunt	1C 3R	2C 3R	3C 3R
2		Grand Father/Mother		Grand Uncle/Aunt	1C !R	2C 2R	3C 2R	4C 2R
1		Father/Mother	Uncle/Aunt	1C 1R	2C 1R	3C 1R	4C 1R	5C 1R
0	Brother/Sister	YOU	1st Cousin	2nd Cousin	3rd Cousin	4th Cousin	5th Cousin	6th Cousin
1	Nephew/Niece	Son/Daughter	1C 1R	2C 1R	3C 1R	4C 1R	5C 1R	6C 1R
2	Grand Nephew/Niece	Grand Son/Daughter	1C 2R	2C 2R	3C 2R	4C 2R	5C 2R	6C 2R
3	Great Grand Nephew/Niece	Great Grand Son/Daughter	1C 3R	2C 3R	3C 3R	4C 3R	5C 3R	6C 3R
4	2G Grand Nephew/Niece	2G Grand Son/Daughter	1C 4R	2C 4R	3C 4R	4C 4R	5C 4R	6C 4R
5	3G Grand Nephew/Niece	3G Grand Son/Daughter	1C 5R	2C 5R	3C 5R	4C 5R	5C 5R	6C 5R
6	4G Grand Nephew/Niece	4G Grand Son/Daughter	1C 6R	2C 6R	3C 6R	4C 6R	5C 6R	6C 6R
7	5G Grand Nephew/Niece	5G Grand Son/Daughter	1C 7R	2C 7R	3C 7R	4C 7R	5C 7R	6C 7R

All cousins share a common ancestor.
Your "degree of cousinhood" (second, third, fourth) depends on how many generations back that common ancestor is.

Take your first cousins, who you know are your aunts' and uncles' children. You all have the same grandparents. Your second cousins share a set of great-grandparents with you, your third cousins have the same great-great grandparents, and so forth. So your granddaughter and your sister's grandson would be second cousins, for example—they have two generations between them and the common ancestor (your parents).

"Removes" enter the picture when two relatives don't have the same number of generations between them and their common ancestor. One generation difference equals one remove. Let's go back to the previous example—say your granddaughter has a son. He has three generations between him and the common ancestor (your parents), but your sister's grandson still has only two generations in-between. So they would be second cousins, but once removed. Likewise, your grandparents' cousins are your first cousins twice removed because of the two-generation difference from you to your grandparents. Your great-great-grandparents are still the common ancestor.

Still confused? You can use the relationship chart below to easily sort everyone out. First identify the common ancestor. Then find both relatives' relationship to that ancestor on the top and side scales of the chart. Where the row and column meet you'll find their relationship.

Let us suppose that you are the grandson of that common ancestor, as seen in Box 3 of the Horizontal Scale (HS), and you want to know your relationship to a great-granddaughter , who would be seen in Box 4 on the Vertical Scale (VS).

If you follow Box 4 (VS) down to where it meets the vertical pathway to Box 3 on the (HS), then where those paths cross, it tells you the relationship -- you are first cousins once removed.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	Common Ancestor	Son or Daughter	Grandson or Daughter	Great Grandson or Daughter	2nd Great Grandson or Daughter	3rd Great Grandson or Daughter	4th Great Grandson or Daughter	5th Great Grandson or Daughter	6th Great Grandson or Daughter	7th Great Grandson or Daughter
2	Son or Daughter	Siblings (Brother or Sister)	Nephew or Niece	Grand Nephew or Niece	Great Grand Nephew or Niece	2nd Great Grand Nephew or Niece	3rd Great Grand Nephew or Niece	4th Great Grand Nephew or Niece	5th Great Grand Nephew or Niece	6th Great Grand Nephew or Niece
3	Grandson or Daughter	Nephew or Niece	First Cousin	First Cousin Once Removed	First Cousin Twice Removed	First Cousin Three Times Removed	First Cousin Four Times Removed	First Cousin Five Times Removed	First Cousin Six Times Removed	First Cousin Seven Times Removed
4	Great Grandson or Daughter	Grand Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Once Removed	Second Cousin	Second Cousin Once Removed	Second Cousin Twice Removed	Second Cousin Three Times Removed	Second Cousin Four Times Removed	Second Cousin Five Times Removed	Second Cousin Six Times Removed
5	2nd Great Grandson or Daughter	Great Grand Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Twice Removed	Second Cousin Once Removed	Third Cousin	Third Cousin Once Removed	Third Cousin Twice Removed	Third Cousin Three Times Removed	Third Cousin Four Times Removed	Second Cousin Five Times Removed
6	3rd Great Grandson or Daughter	2nd Great Grand Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Three Times Removed	Second Cousin Twice Removed	Third Cousin Once Removed	Fourth Cousin	Fourth Cousin Once Removed	Fourth Cousin Twice Removed	Fourth Cousin Three Times Removed	Fourth Cousin Four Times Removed
7	4th Great Grandson or Daughter	3rd Great Grand Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Four Times Removed	Second Cousin Three Times Removed	Third Cousin Twice Removed	Fourth Cousin Once Removed	Fifth Cousin	Fifth Cousin Once Removed	Fifth Cousin Twice Removed	Fifth Cousin Three Times Removed
8	5th Great Grandson or Daughter	4th Great Grand Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Five Times Removed	Second Cousin Four Times Removed	Third Cousin Three Times Removed	Fourth Cousin Twice Removed	Fifth Cousin Once Removed	Sixth Cousin	Sixth Cousin Once Removed	Sixth Cousin Twice Removed
9	6th Great Grandson or Daughter	5th Great Grand Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Six Times Removed	Second Cousin Five Times Removed	Third Cousin Four Times Removed	Fourth Cousin Three Times Removed	Fifth Cousin Twice Removed	Sixth Cousin Once Removed	Seventh Cousin	Seventh Cousin Once Removed
10	7th Great Grandson or Daughter	6th Great Grand Nephew or Niece	First Cousin Seven Times Removed	Second Cousin Six Times Removed	Third Cousin Five Times Removed	Fourth Cousin Four Times Removed	Fifth Cousin Three Times Removed	Sixth Cousin Twice Removed	Seventh Cousin Once Removed	Eighth Cousin

Great-aunt or Great-uncle is a lot like second cousin: It’s common practice for people to call their grandparents’ siblings by these terms, just as they often refer to first cousins’ children as second cousins—but neither is technically correct. The proper term for your relationship to your brother’s grandchildren is grandaunt or granduncle, just like grandparent. Grand means that the relatives in question are two generations removed from one another.

So aunts and uncles follow the same pattern as parents as you tack on generations:

Parent

Aunt/Uncle

Grandparent

Grandaunt/Granduncle

Great-grandparent

Great-grandaunt/Great-granduncle

Great-great-grandparent

Great-great-grandaunt/Great-great-granduncle

Ladd Family

"Degrees of Cousinhood"

All cousins share a common ancestor.Your "degree of cousinhood" (second, third, fourth) depends on how many generations back that common ancestor is.

All cousins share a common ancestor.
Your "degree of cousinhood" (second, third, fourth) depends on how many generations back that common ancestor is.