What cousin's related where?

[Pandabean]

How many of you have been confused by the terms second cousin, or 3rd cousin 5 times removed.

Well I have found this little website that may be of interest to you all and offers a simple way of explaining it.

http://sonic.net/~fredd/cousins.html

[Currie]

Thanks Andy,

That’s quite effective the way they’ve set it out. Like with most things it’s much easier to understand if there’s a picture.

All the best,
Alan

[Pandabean]

True Alan, pictures tell a thousand words. Im always confused as to how contacts are related, this definately made sense and helped.

[apanderson]

I was recently contacted be someone on 'Genes' who appeared to be searching the same particular family .....

To cut a long story short, according to this person's Family Tree Maker (2010) the programme apparently worked out that I am the
2nd grand niece of the wife of the 1st cousin 2x removed of the husband of his 1st cousin 2x removed.

Now, that I'd like to see a picture of because it makes absolutely no sense to me!!

Sounds good though!!

Anne

[Currie]

Hello Anne,

I‘m not sure my brain can handle that one but it sounds a bit like one of those riddles where the person ends up being your own brother or yourself. The required picture would probably look too much like modern art to be easily understood. Once you bring relatives of spouses into the picture it usually (or should that be often?) means that you are not related at all.

I have a fellow called Andrew B. Paterson on my tree (no, not him, the other one, the poet, he’s on the Australian $10 note). His cousin married my grandmother’s cousin’s widow and her child became a Barton, and Banjo’s adopted first cousin once removed. http://rodsell.com/plastics/au10d97f.jpg

I think that means that he was my second cousin’s once removed, adopted first cousin once removed. So I’ve attached just enough people to my tree to put him there, even though he’s not related by any sense of the imagination except mine. I just like collecting poets.

All the best,
Alan

[dutchclogs]

Thank's Andy
=D> I now understand it at last

[sheilajim]

It isn't hard to understand when it is put that way, although they don't mention double cousins. It is when they intermarry that it gets complicated.
For instance - My ancestors Archibald McDonald and Christian Dunn
One of their Children James Dunn McDonald (born 1799) marries and has children, one of which is Margaret McDonald. She marries Robert Scott. One of their children is James McDonald.
Another of the children of Archibald McDonald & Christian Dunn is Agnes McDonald (born 1810). She marries Robert Towers and one of their children is Margaret Towers.

I am assuming that James Scott and Margaret Towers are First Cousins, once removed. Margaret Towers is a first cousin to James Scott's mother Margaret McDonald Scott.
In 1869 Margaret Towers and James Scott marry and have children. This is where it gets confusing. Their children are the grandchildren of Margaret McDonald Scott and they are also her cousins. Are they double cousins twice removed ? And what about Agnes McDonald (Towers) relationship? Both Margaret McDonald (Scott) and Agnes McDonald (Towers) are my xGGreat aunts. What is the relationship of their children of Margaret Towers and James Scott to me?

It is enough to drive a person crazy.

[SarahND]

Hi Sheila
You have my head spinning with your story, but I just want to say something about double cousins. My understanding is that double cousins are the children that result when two siblings marry two siblings... um, sorry, I'm not being very clear!
An example will help from my family: James Hague married Susan Stewart. James' brother John Hague married Susan's sister Mary Stewart. The children of James and Susan are double cousins to the children of John and Mary, since they are cousins through both their parents. Hope this makes sense!

I still don't understand your family puzzle, though... I think I'd need to draw a diagram

All the best,
Sarah

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings All from NZ.

You have my full attention, and dare I say sympathy.

Just today when I scanned some old (1993) correspondence from an elderly bachelor to send to KennethM, in an Eaglesham history aside, did I note that not only did the bachelor mention that his Grand father possibly married his cousin, the surname and Christian name he gave for that woman, also ties into his Grand Mother's line, yet another example of inter marriage within the greater SHARP/E lines.

With their large families over many years, possibly to two wives, we even have an example in later NZ generations of where a child married a (full) cousin of one of their parents. GREAT when you want to enter it into a schematic family tree.

Happy hunting,

Alan SHARP

EDIT: It must be getting late. On re-reading the above sounds like double Dutch. However tonight I have been promised follow up information, from a researcher of the family concerned, and I will then be the wiser if they were direct cousins, or as I suspect a more convoluted linkage.

Alan SHARP.

[sheilajim]

Hi Sarah,

Doesn't it all make your head spin.
I believe as you do abouts what I think that double cousins are. For example, when I was a kid, one of my neighbors had a double cousin. Her father's brother had married her mother's sister. Their children must have been as closely related as brothers and sisters since they both had the same sets of grandparents.

Allan, I suspect that there are more cases of intermarriage between cousins among my old Scottish rellies, especially when Scotland became Protestant. The Catholic Church wouldn't allow such closely related marriages.