Genealogy Chat

Please can anyone explain to me how you work out relationships, eg "first cousin twice removed"? I know my FTM does it automatically, but I'd like to understand the process. If you could direct me to a website that offers an explanation, that would be great, too.
Thanks in advance for any help offered.
Sonya

There is a chart here which shows how it works:-

http://genealogy.about.com/library/nrelationshipchart.htm

Kath. x

If there is a brother (child 1) and sister (child 2) who both have children then the children are first cousins.

If these children (child 3 and child 4) then have children of their own then these children are second cousins.

However if only one of the children (no. 3) has a child this child would be a first cousin once removed to child (no. 4).

Not sure if I have explained this well enough for you to understand. Basically if you are the same generation from a shared ancestor then you are first, or second or third etc. cousins. If you are one generation apart then you are first, or second etc. cousins once removed. Depending on how many generations apart you are determines how many times removed you are.

Kath. x

have nudged chaet for you
sally w

That's brilliant. Thank you so much Kath and Sally.

This is my method:-

Count the number of g's for each person, back to the common ancestor.

So, for example

Person 1 is a ggg grandson = 4 g's
Person 2 is a gg granddaughter = 3 g's

The lowest number determines the degree of cousin, in this case, 3rd cousins.

If the no of g's is the same, then that is the relationship.

If the no of g's is different, subtract one from the other i.e. 4-3=1 to get the level of remove

So, in the example above they are 3rd cousins, once removed.

Thanks InspectorGreenPen.
At the moment I'm finding the chart very useful.
I'm feeling a bit bamboozled, but I'm sure it will come with practice!

There is, of course, a chart on this website too....!

Click on the Hot Matches tab then look on the right hand side, How are you related? and click the button, View chart.....!

nudged to help

sally w <3

IGP's method only works when IGP counts the generations. Most folk think their grandparents are 2 generations back so gg grandparents are 4 generations back by most folks counting.

Seems there are three sorts of people: those who can add, and those who can't.

There was no mention of counting the generations. Perhaps I should have made it clearer

The number of g's is the number of words beginning with the letter G, that is, Great and Grand

Grandparent = 1 g
Great Grandparent = 2 g's
Great Great Grandparent = 3 g's

IGP - sorry then. I took g to be generation, rather than some spelling element as you intended.