IDENTIFICATION OF COLLATERAL RELATIONSHIPS ACROSS GENERATIONS

When looking at complicated family trees it is sometimes difficult to decide whether a certain predecessor is some degree of uncle/aunt or'removed' cousin, and with a successor, whether the person is some degree of nephew/niece or removed cousin. The following definitions and examples should help the relationships to be identified. To save space I have only used male relatives but they are interchangeable with their female equivalents.

1. With predecessors, uncles, great-uncles and great-great-uncles are the brothers of your father, grandfather and great-grandfather respectively; whereas first cousins [10] , once, twice or three times removed (looking backwards) are the first cousins of your father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

2. With successors, nephews, great-nephews and great-great-nephews are the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons respectively of your brother, but first cousins, once, twice or three times removed (looking forwards) are the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons of your first cousin.

   Example

   With reference to the pedigree in Figure 60 , and using as the subject:

   • U is uncle, H is great-uncle and E is great-great-uncle.
   • P and Q are first cousins once removed (backwards). [11]
   • L and M are first cousins twice removed (backwards).
   • X, Y, b and c are second cousins, once removed (backwards).
   • v, z and D1 are nephew, great-nephew and great-great-nephew respectively.
   • w, A1 and E1 are first cousins, once, twice and three times removed (forwards) [11], respectively.
   • u, y and C1 are second cousins, once, twice and three times removed (forwards), respectively
   • x, B1 and F1 are third cousins, once, twice and three times removed (forwards), respectively.
   
   

   The following stylised pedigree, comprising 8 generations, has been considerably curtailed in the last four generations including the omission of spouses, because of space limitations. It is still sufficiently detailed, however, to show most of the relationships described:

   Figure 60 Uncles/Aunts and Nephews/Nieces versus Removed Cousins

   

   Several charts can be found on the internet which also show how to determine the full relationship title of a cousin, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece. None of the charts, however, indicate the 'direction' of the 'removed' cousinship, i.e. whether you are looking backwards or forwards through the generations. This aspect is discussed here.

   The chart below (Table 9) has been devised, using the relationship codes shown from here, to indicate the directional aspect of removed cousins; e.g. a male first cousin once removed (backwards) is coded as Cm - 1, and a female first cousin once removed (forwards) is coded as Cf + 1. This particular use of the codes emphasises their value in avoiding wordy descriptions.

   Table 9 Chart for Determining Collateral Relationships

   		NOMINATED PERSON (Usually oneself)
   	Common Ancestor	Sn Dr	GS GD	2GS 2GD	3GS 3GD	4GS 4GD
   OTHER RELATIVE	Sn Dr	B Sr	U A	GU GA	2GU 2GA	3GU 3GA
   	GS GD	Nm Nf	Cm Cf	Cm - 1 Cf - 1	Cm - 2 Cf - 2	Cm - 3 Cf - 3
   	2GS 2GD	GNm GNf	Cm + 1 Cf + 1	2Cm 2Cf	2Cm - 1 2Cf - 1	2Cm - 2 2Cf - 2
   	3GS 3GD	2GNm 2GNf	Cm + 2 Cf + 2	2Cm + 1 2Cf + 1	3Cm 3Cf	3Cm - 1 3Cf - 1
   	4GS 4GD	3GNm 3GNf	Cm + 3 Cf + 3	2Cm + 2 2Cf + 2	3Cm +1 3Cf + 1	4Cm 4Cf

   First, find the nearest common ancestor of the nominated person and the other relative. On the top row of the table, identify the relationship of the nominated person to the common ancestor and follow the column straight down. Next, find the relationship of the other relative to the common ancestor in the left hand column and follow the row across. The cell in the chart where the selected column intersects with the selected row gives the full title of the relationship of the other relative to you; i.e. from the nominated person's point of view. The above chart assumes there are two common ancestors (e.g. grandfather and grandmother). If there is only one, because of remarriage, then all the collateral relatives will be prefixed by 'half'.

   [10] The first cousins mentioned above are also interchangeable with second or third cousins.

   [11] Removed cousinships are directional in terms of generations, i.e. forwards or backwards.