Last Tuesday (2-12-02) after attending the Tri-Counties Genealogy Society meeting over in
Leonard (Texas), I met my sweet blonde and the blondettes over at the Dairy Queen for
"Belt Buster" night. I don't know why I was surprised to see Counsin Tyrel
in one of the booths, but I was. The little girl
taking orders told me "Hiram, you better talk to him. He's on his third hot
fudge sundae and he's starting to mutter real loud."
Even though I knew I would regret it, I walked over and sat down in Cousin Tyrel's booth
and asked, "what's wrong?"
Tyrel started spreading charts all over the table and said, "I just can't figure out
how to calculate this cousin thang. I can't tell if you are my first cousin, my
second cousin three times removed, or my aunt."
Ok, Tyrel it works like this:
1) The children of your parents' brothers and sisters are your first cousins.
In other words, your first common ancestor is your grandparents.
2) The children of your 1st cousin would be your 1st cousins once removed. In
other words they are one step away from being your first cousins.
3) Your children would be 2nd cousins of your 1st cousin's kids and they would be
your 1st cousins once removed.
4) Your grandkids would be your cousin's grandchildren's 3rd cousins, and they would
be your cousins three times removed.
All you have to do is find the common ancestor and count the generations down and
across. You can read more about the art of defining cousins at
http://lewisgenealogy.com/relate.html
Adios and Keep Smiling
Bill Hocutt aka Uncle Hiram
|
