Cousin

A "cousin" has to be one of the most misunderstood or confusing terms especially when talking about which cousin and how many times removed. Below is a table showing the relationship of various cousins.

To figure out the relationship of a cousin without the table, you need to count the number of generations to the common ancestor for both yourself and the individual in question. The smaller of the two numbers will give you the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. cousin after subtracting one. For example, if I count four generations between myself and the common ancestor AND three generations between the other relative and the same common ancestor, I take the smaller of the two numbers and subtract one giving two, so they are a second cousin with some number removed. To figure how much removed, I take the larger of the two numbers (3) and subtract the smaller of the two numbers (2) giving 1, so they are once removed.