Cousin

Commonly, 'cousin' refers to a 'first cousin', people whose most recent common ancestor is a grandparent. A first cousin used to be known as a cousin-german, though this term is rarely used today. Commonly, 'cousin' refers to a 'first cousin', people whose most recent common ancestor is a grandparent. A first cousin used to be known as a cousin-german, though this term is rarely used today. More generally, cousin is a type of familial relationship in which people with a known common ancestor are both two or more generations away from their most recent common ancestor. This distinguishes a cousin from an ancestor, descendant, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew. Systems of 'degrees' and 'removals' are used in the English-speaking world to describe the exact relationship between two cousins (in the broad sense) and the ancestor they have in common. Various governmental entities have established systems for legal use that can precisely specify kinship with common ancestors any number of generations in the past. Common usage often eliminates the degrees and removals, and refers to people with common ancestry as simply 'distant cousins' or 'relatives'. People are related with a type of cousin relationship if they share a common ancestor and the most recent common ancestor is two or more generations away from both people. This means neither person is an ancestor of the other, they do not share a parent (siblings), and neither is a sibling of a common ancestor (aunts/uncles and nieces/nephews). In the English system the cousin relationship is further detailed by degree and removal. For example, the 'second cousin once removed' relationship is a 'second-degree cousin' with one removal. When the degree is not specified first cousin is assumed. When the removal is not specified no removal is assumed. Removal in the cousin relationship is the number of generations the cousins are separated by. When the cousins are separated by a different number of generations from the most recent common ancestor, the cousin relationship is removed. The difference between the number of generations for each cousin is the removal. For example, if the most recent common ancestor is 2 generations prior for one person and 3 generations prior for the other (one person's grandfather is the other person's great-grandfather) or the most recent common ancestor is 3 generations prior for one person and 4 generations prior for the other (one person's great-grandfather is the other person's great-great-grandfather) the cousins are separated by one generation and therefore once removed. Two people can be removed but be around the same age due to differences in birth dates of parents children and other relevant ancestors. The degree of the cousin relationship is the number of generations prior to the parents before a most recent common ancestor is found. If the cousins are removed, the smaller number of generations to the most recent common ancestor is used to determine the degree of the cousin relationship. For example, if one of the cousins has to go back one generation beyond their parents (the grandparents) before finding the most recent common ancestor and the other has to go back one or more they are first cousins. If one had to go back two generations beyond the parents (great grandparents) and the other had to go back two or more they would be second cousins. Double cousins arise when two siblings of one family mate with two siblings of another family. This may also be referred to as 'cousins on both sides.' The resulting children are related to each other through both of their parents and are thus doubly related. Double first cousins share both sets of grandparents and have twice the degree of consanguinity of ordinary first cousins. Half cousins are descended from half siblings. The children of two half siblings are first half cousins. If half siblings have children with another pair of half siblings, the resulting children would be double first half cousins.