Charles, Thanks for your reply. After reading the various replies and looking at several sites on the interner, I am convinced that it is ok to speak of a half-cousin relationship. Jay Charles Whitsett <chaswhit@charter.net> wrote: Jay, A cousin is someone who has approximately as many genes as you inherited from a common ancestor. For a person to be a first cousin, that common ancestor had to be only one generation before one of your parents. For a second cousin, that common ancestor had to be only two generations before one of your parents. For an Nth cousin, that common ancestor was N generations before one of your parents. The term "first cousin" implies "a common grandparent". Of course, having three or four grandparents in common elevates a cousin into a sibling (or "zeroth" cousin). First cousins share either a grandfather or a grandmother with you. Even though second cousins most likely share only a fourth of your great grandparents you never qualify them as quarter second cousins. If your father's surname was Jones, and if your mother was born a Smith, you could qualify your first cousins as "first cousin on the Jones side" or "first cousin on the Smith side". The same is the case for more distant cousins, but when you are doing the family history of your Jones or Smith sides, you rarely qualify the relatedness of your more distant cousins. They are all cousins because you and they share a common ancestor. If N is large enough (50? 100? 1000?) the list of the Nth-great grandparents of your Nth cousin would be nearly identical with your list of Nth-great grandparents, and so it wouldn't matter which line of descendants you are talking about. Wandering a little more off topic, it is unlikely that you inherited equal numbers of genes from all of your grandparents, and it is practically certain that you inherited more genes from one distant great grandparent than from any of the others. Charles Whitsett On 9 Feb 2008, at 8:20 PM, John Sandy wrote: > Is there a relationship known as 1st half-cousin? The situation > arises with the following relationship I'm trying to describe: > Clara is the daughter of William who is the son of Jonathan and his > first wife, Nancy. Nancy dies and Jonathan marries Julina and > they have several children, one of which is Mary. Mary marries and > has a son, Pete. Pete and Clara, therefore, have the SAME > grandfather (Jonathan) but different grandmothers. Now since they > have a common grandfather, there is a First cousin relationship BUT > since Clara's father, William, is a half-brother to Pete's mother, > Mary, are Pete and Clara just 1st cousins or 1st half-cousins? > > Would appreicate any suggestions. > > Thanks Jay > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MOJASPER- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MOJASPER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message