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From: tjarks@ihlts.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Cousins taxonomy
Message-ID: <214@ihlts.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Oct-83 16:21:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlts.214
Posted: Tue Oct  4 16:21:58 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Oct-83 00:49:41 EDT
References: <154@iwu1c.UUCP>
Organization: BTL Naperville, Il.
Lines: 29

This is how it was explained to me in a short genealogy course I took.

I think everyone understands what a first cousin is (offspring of your
parent's sibling).  I'll use examples from my own family to try to keep
things straight.  Carolyn is my first cousin.  Her daughter, Joyce, is my
first cousin, once removed.  Joyce's expected child will be my first
cousin twice removed.  My daughter, Kalen, is Joyce's second cousin.
Joyce's child will be Kalen's second cousin once removed.  Carried on
further, my grandchild and Carolyn's grandchild would be third cousins,
and our great-grandchildren will be fourth cousins (and also perfect
strangers, no doubt).

It boils down to figuring out how many generations down each person is
from the common ancestor.  If both people are one generation down from
the common ancestor, they are siblings.  Two generations down make them
first cousins.  Ten generation down make them ninth cousins.  If both
people are not the same number of generations down from the common
ancestor, that's when the "removed" comes in, with the Nth cousin part
based on the person closest to the common ancestor.  Example, person A
is the great-great-grandchild for person C (4 generations down).  
Person B  is the (6 * great)-grandchild of person C (8 generations
down).  That makes persons A and B third cousins four times removed.

The last paragraph leads to another question.  Is there an acceptable
abbreviation in genealogical terms for something like
great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.

					Tim Tjarks
					ihnp4!ihlts!tjarks