Judy, Thank you for your very interesting email concerning "understanding cousin relationships". I know you have had many miles from your family history. Another way to find "relatives" is to win the lottery. Regards, Michelle ----- Original Message ----- From: "JM Stell" <stellva@msn.com> To: <lower-delmarva-roots@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 4:13 AM Subject: [LDR] Understanding cousin relationships > My roots go deep into the eastern shore and combine with a branch out of early New England and when it's all figured out my dad and I were some kind of cousin in a couple different ways (I won't bore you with the number of ways, generations or 'removes', 'cause there's more than one). Then I marry a nice guy I met in college whose dad's from TX and mom's from IN, but turns out his mom and I are 10th cousins off the Mayflower. By the time our kids headed to middle school, we were armed with excuses if we ever got called in for parent-teacher conferences! And loaded with quips for the ladies at church. Gotta admit, we had a lot of fun > > So my mom felt left out. Until I found a collateral cousin of my dad's family had served on a jury in Jamestown which sentenced one of her ancestors for drunk and disorderly. Seems that ended her quest to connect! > > - ain't genealogy grand > > Judy Stell > LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS Digest, Vol 3, Issue 288 > From: "Michelle Burris Kenerly" <bluejeans@ec.rr.com<mailto:bluejeans@ec.rr.com>> > Subject: [LDR] Understanding cousin relationships. > > Hello LDR members, > I just received this explanation from a friend and decided to pass it on to you. I hope it is helpful. Good hunting! > Regards, > Michelle > > Kissin' Cousins - Understanding Cousin Relationships > > Most of us don't think about specific cousin relationships in exact terms - "cousin" seems good enough - so many of us aren't very familiar with what these words mean. When working on your family history, however, it's important to understand the various types of cousin relationships. > > a.. First cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you. > b.. Second cousins have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents. > c.. Third cousins have in common two great-great-grandparents and their ancestors. > When cousins descend from common ancestors by a different number of generations they are called "removed." > > a.. Once removed means there is a difference of one generation. Your mother's first cousin would be your first cousin, once removed. She is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. > b.. Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. Your grandmother's first cousin would be your first cousin, twice removed because you are separated by two generations. > Just to complicate matters, there are also many cases of double cousins. This situation usually occurs when siblings from one family marry siblings from another family. The resulting children, grandchildren, etc. are double cousins, because they share all four ancestors in common. These types of relationships can be difficult to determine and it is usually easiest to chart them one at a time (through one family line and then through the other line). > > *************************************** > QUESTIONS about POSTING GUIDELINES, SUBSCRIBING or UNSUBSCRIBING? > Visit The Lower DelMarVa Roots Mailing List FAQ: > http://www.tyaskin.com/handley/ldrfaq.htm > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message