This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ZdB.2ACI/1701.2261.2260.1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: I won't claim it is THE way or the only way but it's certainly a way that yields the correct results without referring to a chart that's easily mislaid by an untidy person like myself or using genealogy software that requires all the ancestors between the two individuals to have been entered for the computer to determine the relationship. I can send you a relationship chart if you want. Relationships between two people with unequal numbers of generations from their common ancestor require an additional step. For instance, as in the previous case one person is 3 generations from the common ancestor and the other is 4 generations from the common ancestor. Use the previous process for the lower of the two numbers to get the level of cousin, 2nd cousin in this case, then subtract the lower number of generations from the larger number to get the difference, in this case 1, which indicates the number of times removed. Thus the relationship between the two individuals in this example is 2nd cousin once removed.