Julie Bowen sent this info along for those scratching heads in puzzlement of the how's of these things. Thanks, Julie. Bj listmanager Relationship of Cousins For many once you get beyond those first cousins you grew up with, understanding relationships is a very confusing concept. Add terms like "removed," "double," and "cross" and even the stout of heart are likely to throw up their hands in frustration. The most important point for beginning to figure out a cousinship is to first determine the common relative. This could be a grandfather or a fourth great grandmother. That is the first issue. Then it is necessary to plot out each of the direct lineages from that common relative. It is likely to look something like: .....Great Grandfather ...... | | Your......siblings....Their Grandfather Grandfather | | Your ....1st cousin... Their Father Father | | You .....2nd cousin ...Them As you go down each generation you add one to the cousin relationship. Of course not every cousinship is this simple. There will be times when your number of generations is more or less from the common relative than the other individual. In that case you add the "removes." Using our example above, your child would be a second cousin, once removed from your second cousin. You are a first cousin once removed from their father. Once in awhile to add to the confusion, two brothers will marry two sisters. Their offspring are considered double first cousins. This is because instead of just sharing one set of common ancestors, they share both sets. When you and your sister each have a child, those children are known as cross cousins. They are still first cousins, but they are cross first cousins. This is not as common a term as the ones discussed above, but you may stumble across it. Here are some web sites to help you in figuring out cousin relationships: Cousin Number Counter-Relationship Chart http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/1956/cousin.ht ml Cousins: How Far Removed? http://www.cswnet.com/~mgoad/cousins.htm Cousins Explained http://www.obliquity.com/family/misc/cousin.html What Is A First Cousin, Twice Removed? http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/16_cousn.html Finally, an excellent book that offers great insight into kinship and relationships of cousins is Jackie Smith Arnold's "Kinship, It's All Relative" published by Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc. You can find out more about this book by visiting Genealogy Publishing Company, Inc. (http://www.genealogybookshop.com/). The link below will take you right to Arnold's book: http://www.genealogybookshop.com/genealogybookshop/fi les/General,General_Reference/177.html