What does it mean when you say “twice removed” (second cousin twice removed)?

Question

What does it mean when you say “twice removed” (second cousin twice removed)?

In: Other

Answer 1

For two people, the relationship is the smaller of the two numbers of generations back to a common ancestor. So 1 generation (parents) is siblings, 2 generations is cousins (who share grandparents), 3 generations is second cousins, and so on. The “removed” number is the difference of the number of generations between the shorter and longer list of ancestors back to the common one.