What's the difference between a 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousin? And why are some cousins 'removed'?
First Cousins: If your mother or father have brothers or sisters, then their children are your first cousins. In other words, first cousins are people who share a setof grandparents.
Second Cousins: Your second cousin is the son or daughter of one of your parents first cousins. In other words, second cousins are people who share a set of great-grandparents.
Third Cousins. As for third cousins, they're the children of your parents' second cousins and, here, you share a set of great-great-grandparents.
You can carry on doing this until you get to 20th (and beyond) cousins. Beyond third cousins it is best to say 'distant' cousins.
Now for this word 'removed'.
What's the difference between a first cousin and a first cousin once removed?
The answer is surprisingly simple and can be expressed in a single word : generations.
It's still a question of sharing ancestors but they're from different generations.
So, for example, my mother's first cousin and she have a grandmother and a grandfather in common: they share them.
But what relationship are my to my mother's first cousin?
The answer is first cousin once removed. Her grandmother and my great-grandmother were the same person.
If you can understand that, then you might then see that my mother's first cousin once removed (that's to say a generation above her) would be my first cousin twice removed (that's to say two generations above me) and that this relative and I would share an ancestor who would be their grandparent but my great-great-grandparent.
My head went round and round after first reading this which appeared in the Daily Mail.
