This was in todays Sunday Express:
What's the difference between a first, a second and a third cousin? And why are some cousins "removed"?
Lets start with the easiest : 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 set of grandparents.
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.
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, it's best to say "distant" cousins.
Now for this wretched 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 am I 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.
Stephanie.
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