I tried to Google it but it got VERY confusing very fast, if anyone could dumb it down for me that would be great lol
In: Biology
To help understand this, you need to be thinking *forwards* from the direct common ancestor of you and your cousins, not from yourself.
If you are first cousins, *one* of you has ONE generation between you and your last common ancestor. That is, Grandma had 2 kids, your mum and your aunt, and then there’s you and your cousin.
If you are second, or third, then you’re additional generations down and share the same great-grandma, great-great grandma, etc.
The “removed” describes the difference in which generation you’re in if there is one.
There’s 1 generation between me and our ancestor. It goes grandma -> mum -> me
There’s 2 generations between you and our ancestor. From MY perspective, It goes grandma -> my aunt -> my first cousin -> You
There’s a 1 generation difference between you and me. So you are ONCE removed.
From your perspective, it goes great grandma -> grandma -> mum -> you.
[Here’s a nice image explaining all that](https://preview.redd.it/first-cousin-vs-first-cousin-once-removed-v0-ers6gehfonbb1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=d3705d24ba259d264496a1342026b13e08f6ca37)
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