I prefer to work this out in my head rather using charts...that way I always understand it. I start with the COMMON ancestor and work down on my side and my cousin's side. The children of the mutual ancestor are siblings, their children on both sides are first cousins and so on down the line. When you get to YOU and your cousin -- if the number of generations are EQUAL on both sides from the common ancestor you are 5th or 6th (or whatever) cousins. If the number of generations are NOT equal then the side with more generations is "removed" one time for each generation extra on the side with more generations. I know it takes longer than just looking at a chart but it makes me understand the relationship better to do it in my head. Joan In a message dated 6/14/2012 8:18:46 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jim@acesrecycling.com writes: I Thought I had an understanding of cousins and their relationship to me, but apparently, I'm wrong! My software, My Heritage, calculates the relationship of every person in my database. However, I don't think I understand how they come up with the "Once Removed, Twice Removed" part of their description. EG: I found a new cousin the other day whose name is Karla, Karla is my 6th cousin. Karla's father, Roy, as you would expect, is my 5th cousin, but Once Removed. Why is he "Once Removed"? Karla's children are my 6th cousins, Once Removed. Why are they not my 7th cousins? It gets worse! Karla's grandfather is my 4th cousin, "Twice Removed". And her great Grandfather is my 3rd cousin 3 times removed. All of these people share the same grand parents, 3, 4, 5, or 6 generations back. So why are some of them Once, Twice, or 3 times Removed? Instead of all of them being just cousins? Very confusing! I hope someone on this list can explain this "Removed" part of relationships to me in plain English. Jim ===== If you would prefer digest mode to mail mode, drop a note to roots-admin@rootsweb.com and ask for the digest... ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I just never gave much thought to the exact relationship or what to call it. I was too happy to find one more branch or twig for my tree. But when I started using Family Tree Maker the relationship is shown in the top right corner for whoever the focus is on and the relationship is just to me or number one in the tree. FTM uses "grand aunt" while another uses "great aunt" and the third app uses "G Aunt" so there is no consensus among the software I have. Wikipedia has some information, maybe too much, and charts to look at. I'm still trying to decide between Family Tree Maker, GEDitCOM II, and Reunion 9. All run on a Mac. I have The Master Genealogist from years ago when I used Windows but going back to Windows is not an option I'd consider. Each one has something the others do not. Gale Gorman Houston On Jun 14, 2012, at 9:39 AM, JYoung6180@aol.com wrote: I prefer to work this out in my head rather using charts...that way I always understand it. I start with the COMMON ancestor and work down on my side and my cousin's side. The children of the mutual ancestor are siblings, their children on both sides are first cousins and so on down the line. When you get to YOU and your cousin -- if the number of generations are EQUAL on both sides from the common ancestor you are 5th or 6th (or whatever) cousins. If the number of generations are NOT equal then the side with more generations is "removed" one time for each generation extra on the side with more generations. I know it takes longer than just looking at a chart but it makes me understand the relationship better to do it in my head. Joan In a message dated 6/14/2012 8:18:46 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jim@acesrecycling.com writes: I Thought I had an understanding of cousins and their relationship to me, but apparently, I'm wrong! My software, My Heritage, calculates the relationship of every person in my database. However, I don't think I understand how they come up with the "Once Removed, Twice Removed" part of their description. EG: I found a new cousin the other day whose name is Karla, Karla is my 6th cousin. Karla's father, Roy, as you would expect, is my 5th cousin, but Once Removed. Why is he "Once Removed"? Karla's children are my 6th cousins, Once Removed. Why are they not my 7th cousins? It gets worse! Karla's grandfather is my 4th cousin, "Twice Removed". And her great Grandfather is my 3rd cousin 3 times removed. All of these people share the same grand parents, 3, 4, 5, or 6 generations back. So why are some of them Once, Twice, or 3 times Removed? Instead of all of them being just cousins? Very confusing! I hope someone on this list can explain this "Removed" part of relationships to me in plain English. Jim