What does it mean if someone says “We’re _____ cousins, twice removed”?
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The first number (first cousins, second cousins, third cousins, etc) refers to how many generations you have to go back to find a common ancestor. While we don’t technically refer to siblings as 0th cousins, you could think of them that way: their common ancestors are their parents. First cousins share grandparents. If the cousins are not of the same generation -more on this in a second- you use the *shorter* path to that ancestor.
The second number (number of times removed) refers to relatives who are not of the same generation. Cousins of the same generation are zero times removed, and the number of times removed is the number of steps “up” the chain of ancestors that the younger cousin would need to take to reach zero.
The daughter of my first cousin is my first cousin once removed: first because our common ancestors are my grandparents (her great-grandparents), and once removed because she’s one step further from them than I am. *Her* children (assuming she has them) will be my first cousins twice removed: our common ancestors are still my grandparents, but they will be two steps further away.
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