Your Family Tree

Use the cousin calculator to determine the family relationship between two people who share a common blood ancestor.

Note: Relationship Chart will appear in a new browser. You may have to over-ride your pop-up stopper for it to appear.

Cousin Terms and Definitions

First Cousin
Your first cousin is a child of your aunt or uncle. You share one set of grandparents with your first cousin, but you do not have the same parents.

Second Cousin
Your second cousin is the grandchild of your great-aunt or great-uncle. You share one set of great-grandparents with your second cousin, but you do not have the same grandparents.

Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cousins
Your third cousin is the great-grandchild of your great-great-aunt or great-great-uncle. You share a set of great-great-grandparents with your third cousin, but do not have the same great-grandparents. Fourth cousins have one set of great-great-great-grandparents, but not the same great-great-grandparents. And so on.

Double Cousins
If two siblings in one family marry two siblings from another family and each couple has a child, the children are double first cousins. The word double in addition to the first cousin term is because because they share the same four grandparents. Regular first cousins share only one set of common grandparents, while double first cousins share both sets of grandparents plus all lineal and collateral relatives.

Removed
The relationships of cousins of different generations are explained by using the word "removed". Cousins who are "once removed" have a one-generation difference. For example, the first cousin of your father is your first cousin, once removed. In that case, your father's first cousin is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. This one-generation difference is explained by saying that your are cousins "once removed.". Removed cousin relationships is never measured by age, but only by generation differences.

Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference between cousins. If you are two generations younger than the first cousin of your grandparent, then the relationship between you and your grandparent's first cousin are first cousins, twice removed.

Cousin relationships can be any combination of first, second, third and so on, with once removed, twice removed, and so on. A genealogy program will calculate exact family relationships in your family tree for both blood relatives and relatives by marriage. Here is a list of genealogy programs some of which are free.

By using the cousin calculator above, you can see how the "removed" relationship works for cousins by blood. Use the + and - buttons to change generations between blood cousins to see how cousin relationships are defined.

For example:
"If you are the "grandchild" of an ancestor and
Your relative is the "great-grandchild" of same ancestor,