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Today’s post is about bilineal relationships – situations in which a person is related to another person on both their mother and their father’s side of the family.
- One such situation occurs with Grace Strachan and her cousin Edna Strachan (Grace’s father, George Strachan, and Edna’s father, David Strachan were brothers).
and their husbands
- Edna was married to Lewis Renzo Loney, a first cousin of Grace’s husband, Lawrence Loney.
Confused? This means that descendants of these two couples are related in two ways.
Relationship Terms
Sometimes, especially when working on your family history, it’s handy to know how to describe your family relationships more exactly. The definitions below should help you out.
Cousin (a.k.a “first cousin”)
Your first cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you. In other words, they are the children of your aunts and uncles.
Second Cousin
Your second cousins are the people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cousins
Your third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, fourth cousins have the same great-great-great-grandparents, and so on.
Removed
When the word “removed” is used to describe a relationship, it indicates that the two people are from different generations. So, if you and your first cousins are in the same generation (two generations younger than your grandparents), the word “removed” is not used to describe your relationship.
The words “once removed” mean that there is a difference of one generation. For example, your mother’s first cousin is your first cousin, once removed. This is because your mother’s first cousin is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. This one-generation difference equals “once removed.”
Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. You are two generations younger than a first cousin of your grandmother, so you and your grandmother’s first cousin are first cousins, twice removed.
In the chart above we see that the children of Edna Strachan and Lewis Renzo Loney and are first cousins once removed (on their father’s side) with the children of Grace Strachan and Lawrence Loney.
And, in this chart, we see that the children of Edna Strachan and Lewis Renzo Loney are also second cousins (on their mother’s side) with the children of Grace Strachan and Lawrence Loney.
Some Additional Terms
Kissing Cousins – relatives with whom one is on close enough terms to greet with a kiss
Long-lost Cousin – describes a relation you have not seen for a long time
Shirttail Relative – somebody who is a relative by marriage or is only distantly related, such as a fourth cousin, or is a family friend with honorary status as a relative
And, if all these terms seem too confusing, think about the many IE languages (including Irish, Sanskrit, Slavic, and some of the Germanic tongues) that have or had separate words for some or all of the eight possible “cousin” relationships, e.g. Latin, which along with consobrinus had consobrina “mother’s sister’s daughter,” patruelis “father’s brother’s son,” atruelis “mother’s brother’s son,” amitinus “father’s sister’s son,” etc. Old English distinguished fæderan sunu “father’s brother’s son,” modrigan sunu “mother’s sister’s son,” etc.
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