How is a second cousin different from a cousin once removed?

Brainy Blonde

This kind of thing has always driven me crazy, but I found a chart that makes it easier to figure out. Your second cousin is the child of your first cousin once removed. Your first cousin once removed is the first cousin of one of your parents. Get it? You may have to read it more than once to get your brain wrapped around it. I always do! Anyway, you can find the chart at: http://home.triad.rr.com/zanetti/chart2.html That makes it much easier, more so if you write on paper. That's what I did. Apr 07 02, 1:45 AM

british bulldog

Socrates, imagine you and I are first cousins (i.e. either your mother or father was the sister or brother of one of my parents.) Your children would be my first cousins once removed (removed one generation.) Likewise, my children would be your first cousins once removed. Our children would be second cousins to each other. Apr 07 02, 9:54 AM

Jack Flash

With all due respect to the compilers of the chart to which BB has drawn attention I must point out that this only gives part of the picture. The children of your first cousin are first cousins once removed and their children are first cousins twice removed and so on. Second cousins are the children of your parents' first cousins. Their parents and their children are also second cousins but (and this is the point) once removed upwards in the first case and downwards in the second. From the standpoint of your cousins removed downwards, you are a cousin removed upwards. Third cousins are the children of your parents' second cousins, and so on until the proverbial 42nd cousins are reached. One rule to bear in mind is that your plain first, second, third, etc. cousin (ie without any removes) must be of your generation. If you can follow all this, then you will readily understand that from the point of view of your third cousin once removed upwards, you are that person's second cousin once removed downwards. The best (and the clearest) explanation of family relationships I have ever come across is to be found in 'The Dunlop Book of Facts' which was published in the UK in 1964 and was a precursor of the 'Guinness Book of Records.' If you can locate a copy it will be well worth the effort. Apr 07 02, 1:34 PM

Laurel Laurent

I'm somewhat thicker than most, but the following site explains it very clearly. http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/16_cousn.html Apr 08 02, 12:55 AM