Wheeler Posted November 1, 2004 Share Posted November 1, 2004 From Kimberly Powell... Most of us don't think about specific cousin relationships in exact terms - "cousin" seems good enough - so many of us aren't very familiar with what these words mean. When working on your family history, however, it's important to understand the various types of cousin relationships. First cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you. Second cousins have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents. Third cousins have in common two great-great-grandparents and their ancestors. When cousins descend from common ancestors by a different number of generations they are called "removed." Once removed means there is a difference of one generation. Your mother's first cousin would be your first cousin, once removed. She is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. Your grandmother's first cousin would be your first cousin, twice removed because you are separated by two generations. Just to complicate matters, there are also many cases of double cousins. This situation usually occurs when siblings from one family marry siblings from another family. The resulting children, grandchildren, etc. are double cousins, because they share all four ancestors in common. These types of relationships can be difficult to determine and it is usually easiest to chart them one at a time (through one family line and then through the other line). Print this chart for future reference... http://genealogy.about.com/library/nrelationshipchart.htm Quote Link to comment
psarnes1 Posted November 2, 2004 Share Posted November 2, 2004 I have a question for eveyrone. My family is not real organized when it comes to geneology. How would I start trying to figure out where I come from? I am wanting to do this project to figure out as much as I can.. Thanks in advance!! Smooches Quote Link to comment
Wheeler Posted November 3, 2004 Author Share Posted November 3, 2004 Hi Alclary, What you need to do first is sit down and write down all of the ancestors that you know... your mother and father... , your mother's mother and father... and your father's mother and father, etc. until you get to the point where you don't know the name of the next ancestor. If your parents are still living they will probably be able to help you with this. Try to find out where each ancestor was born, when they were born, if they are dead... approximate year that they died and where they are buried, if known. If your parents are not living maybe an aunt or uncle could help. The Latter Day Saints have a fine genealogy program that many people use to record their ancestors... and it makes it easy for you to keep up with what you've found... dates of birth and death, etc. This program is PAF 5... and the best part about it is that its FREE!!! You can get it by going to www.familysearch.org and downloading it. While you're on the first page of that website look on the left and you will see several titles of articles that will help you to learn..."How do I get started" and "Family History Forms"... When I first started working with genealogy I didn't even know what my great grandparents names were! I wrote to a cousin that I had never seen before or even corresponded with and she sent me a wonderful letter containing a lot of information on my ancestors. After that I went to the town where they had lived and found records... my great great grandfather's 1786 handwritten will [now that gave me chills up and down my spine], probate records for some of the other ancestors, etc. This has been a wonderful learning experience for me and I dearly love genealogy. Get in touch with your living relatives before it's too late!!! Ask questions! Write it down! Always write it down! Also write down who said that and the date that they said it... you will forget if you don't make a record of it. I have access to the United States Census from 1790 thru 1930 and would be glad to look up people for you if you will send me some names and counties and states where they lived. I don't guarantee that I'll be successful in finding them, but I will try! If you need any help please let us know... we'll be so happy to help you. That's one thing about genealogists... they love to help people find their ancestors! Quote Link to comment
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