eli5 What does it mean when a relative is “twice removed”?
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It’s the difference between generations. So your first cousin’s kid is your 1st cousin once removed. Your cousin’s grandkid is your 1st cousin twice removed.
It’s the difference in generations. Your first cousins (the children of your parent’s siblings) are the same generation as you. If one of those cousins has a child, they’re a generation after you, so they’re your first cousins *once* removed. If that person then has a child, that child is 2 generations after you, so they’d be your first cousin *twice* removed. Going in the opposite direction, your parents first cousins are also your first cousins *once* removed, because they’re from one generation before you.
[removed]
Everyone in your generation is a sibling or a cousin. Every extra generation back you have to go to have a same ancestor adds to the cousin count (1st cousin shares a grandparent, 2nd cousin shares a great grandparent).
Next the removed. This is someone who shares a direct descendant (grandparent or great, etc, excluding aunts and uncles) and each removed is how many generations different you are in that relation. If your grandparents is their great grandparents you are first cousins once removed. Twice removed would specifically be a grandparent/great great grandparent combo, unless you were talking about non first cousins.
Like others have said it’s the difference in generation but another way to think about it is the difference in how many “greats” there are between you and the common ancestor.
So if you’re related with a common ancestor who is your great great grandfather and another persons great grandfather then you’d be once removed.
Your father/mother’s generation is once removed
your grandfather’s generation is twice removed
your great grandfather is thrice removed.
Your dad’s cousin is your cousin once removed
Your grandfather’s cousin is your cousin twice removed
In theory you could call your dad’s sister your ‘sister once removed’ but instead we use the word Aunt.
Note this can go the other way too, your kids are once removed, your grandkids are twice removed.
Just like the aunt example, we don’t say ‘cousin once removed’ we say niece or nephew. But after that, you could use ‘cousin twice removed’ as a way of saying ‘this kid is the cousin of my grandkid, we are related but not directly’
Xth cousin is distance from the younger relative to your shared ancestor (parent is 0, grandparent is 1, great grandparent is 2, etc.), while y removed is the difference between their distance and yours to that relative.
So your parent’s sibling’s lines are all 1st cousins, your grandparents siblings lines are 2nd cousins, your great grandparents siblings lines are 3rd cousins, etc.
Then removed just describes the generational gap, if your shared ancestor is your grandma and their mom, that’s 1 removed (an uncle/aunt), if it’s your great grandma and their mom then it’s twice removed (granduncle/grandaunt), etc.
It gets a bit more tricky once there are kids back down, but your 2nd cousin 2 removed’s children will be 2nd cousin 1 removed, then their kids will be 2nd cousin 0 removed, then their kids will be 1 removed again, and then 2 removed.
This guy does a brilliant job explaining
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexalisitza/tiktok-teacher-explained-cousins-once-removed
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