first cousin, second cousin, third cousin ....... See other explanation below
Explanation: First, second and third is by generation Thus the children of your parents' brothers and sisters are your first cousins -- you are the first generation from that line. Your children and your first cousins' children are second cousins. They are the second generation from the "reference" generation. Contrary to the other explanation offered here, your third cousins are the children of the of the second generation -- i.e., the third generation from the "reference" generation. They are third cousins of one another. They are not third cousins of any of the second cousins or any of the first cousins. Now. How do you refer to a cousin who is not in your generation but is in another generation? They are your X cousin Y times removed. So, the children of your first cousins are your first cousins, too,but they are your first cousins once removed, because they are one generation different. Their children are your first cousins twice removed, because they are two generations different. The same for "removing" second and third cousins. So, to find out whether they are first second or third cousins, first find the "reference" generation, then count each band of generations down from it. Everyone in the same generation is first or second or third but never mixed. The "movement" of generations is not relative to the "reference" generation but the person in the first or second or third generation. You count the movements up or down from that generation to determine the relationship. I hope this is more helpful than confusing. I've got a lot of cousins and have been through this exercise many, many times!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 27 mins (2004-09-04 01:15:12 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
The claim to be a fourth cousin of someone isn\'t much of a claim. I think they say that all of us are related to one another in some way once you get past fourth cousins!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 20 hrs 5 mins (2004-09-04 20:52:52 GMT) Post-grading --------------------------------------------------
Yes, it goes either direction. Again, the generation is counted from the \"reference\" generation and the removal is counted up or down from the person you are trying to position across the generations.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 20 hrs 16 mins (2004-09-04 21:03:18 GMT) Post-grading --------------------------------------------------
Two people have the same relationship up, down or across. Think of two siblings, a man and a woman. They each get married and have children. Their children, who are the first generation following, are first cousins to one another (across families, of course, not within their own nuclear family!). When they have children, their children who are the next generation, all the children of that generation will be second cousins to one another. But the first cousins will always be first cousins, and when they refer to the offspring of their first cousins, they will be first cousins once removed, and the offspring of those offspring will be first cousins twice removed. And because of that \"first\" lineage, that is the relationship each party has to the other regardless of generation. Likewise, anyone in that second generation will count parents or children of the second generation as their own second cousin once removed; they never stop being a second cousin of that line. Parents stay parents, grandparents stay grandparents, aunts and uncles stay aunts and uncles of an individual, but everyone else is a cousin first by generation and then by their \"relative\" position within, above, or below that generation.
| Deborah Workman United States Local time: 00:45 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
|
|