John L. in NH asked: "Can some one explain what it means to have a 10 cousin once removed. I have forgotten." This explanation requires two parts: the first is to explain what a 10th cousin is; the second is an explanation of a the "removed" indication. Simply put, look at your first cousins. You and your first cousins are descended from the same pair of grandparents. Your second cousins and you are descended from the same pair of great-grandparents. Your third cousins and you are descended from the same pair of great-great-grandparents. Continuing on back, you add one "cousin number" for each "great" in the link, so that you and your 10th cousins are descended from the same pair of great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents (nine greats). Therefore, "cousin number" = (number of greats) plus one. Got it? Okay, let's go on. Suppose your first cousin has a child. You and that child are "removed" by a generation. So you and your first cousin's child are "first cousins once removed" to each other. If that child has a child, i.e., your first cousin's grandchild, you and that grandchild are first cousins twice removed. Et cetera. Let's look at the original question. You have a 10th cousin once removed. Two cases arise: you and that cousin's parent are 10th cousins (the cousin is the child of your 10th cousin), or that cousin and your parent are 10th cousins (you are the child of that cousin's 10th cousin). In either case, the "once removed" occurs because you're displaced from each other by a generation. Note that this is the genealogical definition of cousins and removals. Anthropologists, for example don't use the "removed" at all and number the cousin relationships differently. (I've had some wonderful disputes with my brother, an anthropologist, about this very issue.) Furthermore, in some cultures, no matter how distant the cousinship is, a cousin is a cousin without all this numeric stuff. But we're talking genealogy here. So we'll use the genealogy definitions. If you're still confused, I'm sure that Rootsweb has an excellent explanation in its files. Hope this helped. Coralie J. Allen ggggg granddaughter of Isaiah Carpenter of Shaftsbury, VT