Cousins & Their Meaning

When I started my family tree, I began to run across terms such as "1st cousin, 3 times removed", "2nd cousin", "4th cousin, 5 times removed" and so on.

While I've always known what a 1st cousin was, and I thought I knew what a 2nd cousin was (turns out I was wrong about that one!), I had no idea what all this "removed" business was all about.

Well, today I am trying to simplify that and have posted a quick page explaining the calculation between yourself and your various types of cousins. There are calculators that you can use to do this, but I think having a basic understanding of the calculations will help you to better understand your relationships. This will come in handy if you choose to do a DNA test and try to find a common ancestor with someone who is your 2nd cousin, 3 times removed!