Count’n Cousins:

"Civil" and "Canon" refer to the degree of a relationship. The degree of a relationship is a legal term. It refers to the number of "steps" between two people who are related by blood.

Canon law is used in most of the United States. It measures the maximum number of steps from the nearest common ancestor. For example, you would be 2 direct steps away from your first cousin because your nearest common ancestor is one of your grandparents. So in this case, the degree is 2.* The degree in civil law represents the total number of steps through the blood line that separate two individuals. For example, there are 2 steps from you to your grandparent, and then 2 more steps back down to your first cousin, so the degree is 4.* Counting Cousins What some people refer to as 'counting cousins' is an extension of the process of Canon law except that it excludes the common ancestor and does not deal with 'degree' since degree only accounts for the relationship of 2 people of the same generation.  For example in the case of two first cousins the degree, as stated above, is two, but what is the degree between one of the first cousins and the others offspring?  The offspring is three degrees removed from the common ancestor and the first cousin two degrees?  Under the civil law the 'degree' would be five but under Canon law there is no acceptable degree. The common accepted practice is to count cousins, not for legal purposes, by accounting for relationship from common siblings, not ancestors: For the sake of 'counting' the word 'Cousins' refers to relatives of the same generation who are not siblings. If either of the relatives are a sibling of the others ancestor then you are not counting cousins because you have an Aunt/Uncle and Niece/Nephew relationship. When you are counting cousins you are actually counting 'generations' from two siblings with those siblings being zero.  Aunt/Uncle and Niece/Nephew Cousins Aunt/Uncle and Niece/Nephew: You appropriately count the relationship from an Uncle to a Nephew the same way you count parentage.  In other words:           Father<>Grandfather<>Great Grandfather<>Great-Great Grandfather, etc. as applied to an Uncle would be: Uncle<>Granduncle**<>Great Granduncle<>Great-Great Grand Uncle, etc. The same would apply to the relationship of the Uncle to a Niece and an Aunt to a Nephew or Niece.  It would also apply in reverse:       Nephew<>Grandnephew<>Great Grandnephew<>Great-Great Grand Nephew, etc. A common mistake in the Aunt/Uncle and Nephew/Niece relationship is to leave out the 'Granduncle' step by skipping to 'Great Uncle' which is totally inappropriate. Cousins: In the examples above the two first cousins are the offspring of two siblings.  If we counted, under Canon law, from their common ancestor they would be two degrees from their common ancestor [grandparent] but at the same time they are the 'first' occurrence of cousins, not the second.  For this reason we do not count cousins from the common ancestor [grandparents] but from common siblings because the children of common siblings are 'the first cousins to occur.' Generally we are all in agreement about the relationship of the children of siblings as being first cousins but a common misconception occurs when we compare the offspring of one of the first cousins to the other first cousin.  In other words if A and B are first cousins, and A has a child A1, then what is the relationship of A1 to B?  If you said second cousins you are....wrong.  If A1 and B are second cousins then when B has a child, B1, what is the relationship between A1 and B1?  If A1 and B are second cousins then A1 and B1 couldn't also be second cousins.  The relationship terms must make it clear what the relationship is. ** Confused?  Everyone is.  In this case the important thing to remember is not why something doesn't work as much as why and what does work so here are the simple rules of how to properly 'count' cousins: Generations Removed Brother 0 Sister A 1 I B 2 J C 3 K 0 D 4 L 1 E 5 M 2 F 6 N 3 G 7 O H 8 P If the two relatives [C&K] are of the same generation and you count 3 steps from the two siblings, then C&K are third cousins. If the two relatives [C&N], who are not siblings, are not of the same generation then you stop counting cousins when you reach one of the two cousin [C or N] in this case C. If from the siblings you counted down to C and counted 3 steps then they are still third cousins but with a twist. From the ancestor of N who is the same generation as C you start counting from there with that ancestor [K] being zero until you reach N.  If its three more steps from that ancestor to N then N is three generations 'removed' from the same generation as C.  They are third cousins, three times removed. * Family Tree Maker **That's why Civil law is not commonly used because it does not clarify the relationship.  Under Civil law a grandson[X1] of the grandfather[V] would be 2 steps from the grandfather and a grandson[W1] by a different child[W] would be 2 steps from the grandfather[V] equaling 4 degrees.  But the son[X] of the grandfather would be 1 step away and the great grandson[W1] of the grandfather[V] by a different child[W] would be 3 steps away from the grandfather[V] making the son[X] and great grandson[W1] also equaling 4 degrees!  We must remove the inconsistency to accurately describe not only the degree of separation but the actual relationship.  Just explaining why we don't use civil or canon law to define relationships gives me a headache...

Let's Have a Test!

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Using the table to the right what is the relationship between: D & L,   A & L,   M & F,   A & N,   D & O

Generations Removed Brother 0 Sister A 1 I B 2 J C 3 K D 4 L E 5 M F 6 N G 7 O H 8 P -to see the answers send an email to gdl@glenns-world.com with the word “test” in the subject. Do not include the quotes. If you do not receive the answers within 24 hours send me an email to the same address without the word test in the subject explaining that you didn’t get the answers.

Also see:  Cousins on FaceBook: