NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Cousin chart

Cousin chart is the common name for a Table of Consanguinity. It identifies the correct name for the cousinship relationship between any two specific people using their closest common ancestor as a reference point, however cousinship does not exist between siblings, or direct descendents or direct ancesters. Cousinship is more fully defined below. This chart uses formal English relationship terms. Consanguinity, literally meaning common blood, describes how close a person is related to another in the sense of a family. ... The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of any set of organisms is the most recent individual which is an ancestor of all of them. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

See also: a general overview of kinship terminology. A family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships â€” including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and (in some cases) ownership (as occurred in the Roman Empire). ...

Overview

The term cousin commonly refers to the child of one's aunt or uncle (i.e. the child of one's parent's sibling), but the relationship between that person and oneself is more precisely termed "first cousin". A cousin chart identifies the correct name for the relationship between two people with a common ancestor. ...

"Cousins", more specifically, are any relatives of oneself that are neither one's siblings, nor one's siblings' direct descendants, nor one's direct ancestors, nor one's direct descendants; neither are one's "cousins" any siblings of one's direct ancestors. In common and familiar terms then, never are one's brothers and sisters, nor one's parents nor grandparents; nor one's children or grandchildren; nor one's aunts nor uncles, grand-aunts nor grand-uncles, nephews nor nieces, nor grand-nephews nor grand-nieces of any degree, one's cousin by that relationship.

Generations

Ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc) are used to quantify in which preceding generation the common direct ancestor of the two specific individuals is located. And because generations determine one's first, second, third, fourth, etc, cousinship, those cousins are always of the same generation as oneself. (Think of a symmetrical pyramid with one's own and one's cousin's generation forming the base, then the larger the ordinal number of the cousinship is, i.e. first, second, third, etc., the higher the pyramid will be, always culminating with the two cousins' ancestor in common at the peak of this pyramid. First cousins form a pyramid with their shared grandparent at the peak, second cousins form a pyramid with their shared great-grandparent at the peak, third cousins form a pyramid with their shared great-great-grandparent at the peak, and so forth.) Commonly, ordinal numbers, or ordinals for short, are numbers used to denote the position in an ordered sequence: first, second, third, fourth, etc. ...

Generation often implies age contemporaries, but that is not the definition of a generation. A generation is defined in terms of reproductive steps (e.g. parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, great-grandparent, great-grandchild and so forth). When there is a difference in generational level between the two individuals for whom the relationship is being defined, then the cousinship term is completed with a number removed, which indicates how many generations separate the two specific individuals in question, i.e. the two individuals for whom one is defining the relationship. First cousins once removed are very often also simply referred to (though incorrectly) as second cousins. Their children are sometimes referred to as third cousins. This vernacular is not technically correct, but very frequently used, and often a source of debate and confusion.

Examples

If Andrew's great-great-grandfather, Tom, is also Beatrice's great-great-great-great-grandfather, then Andrew and Beatrice are "third cousins twice removed". Tom is the ancestor in common of the two, and there are five generations between him and Beatrice, but only three generations between him and Andrew. Since Andrew holds the closer relationship status to the ancestor he has in common with Beatrice, his place determines that they are third cousins. But Beatrice and Andrew are themselves two generations removed from each other, thus Andrew and Beatrice, in this example, are "third cousins twice removed". This article is about the domestic group. ...

In the above example, Andrew himself, and Beatrice's unnamed grandparent are both of the same generation and so they form the base of the symmetrical pyramid with Tom at the peak, but Beatrice is still two generations descended below this base line. So the symmetrical pyramid formed by the ancestor in common and the individual closest generationally is in this example a third cousin pyramid, then each succeeding generation beneath this symmetrical pyramid's base is removed from that third cousin pyramid. To restate, the ordinal number of cousinship (first, second, third, etc) is determined by how many generations exist between the ancestor in common and the one of the two individuals who is closest to that common ancestor's generation, while the degree of remove of the same cousinship is determined by any generational difference which may exist between the two individuals for whom one is defining the relationship.

Stated yet another way, in order to correctly name the exact cousinship of two specific individuals, one must know the ancestor the two have in common, and that person's relationship to each of the two (which will be the number of generations down from that common ancestor to each of the two individuals) and also the difference in generational level which exists between the two specific individuals. If one knows the exact number of generations from the common ancestor to each of the specific individuals, then one will automatically know the difference in generations between the two as well. As the example above shows: Tom is both Andrew's great-great-grandfather, and Tom is also Beatrice's great-great-great-great-grandfather.

Double cousins and half cousins

Generally, one's cousinship to another individual is determined by a connection through only one parent to an individual in that parent's biological family. But an individual's cousinship to another individual may be determined by a connection through both parents. These cousins are biologically connected to both the maternal and paternal family trees and that cousinship is termed a double cousin. Another term is cousins on both sides.

If a pair of siblings from one family each form a couple with a pair of siblings from another family, then the children of these two couples will be double first cousins to one another. They would already automatically be first cousins due to the fact that they are children of one of their parent's siblings, but in this case the children of their mother's sibling, are also the children of their father's sibling, and thus they are double first cousins.

Whether the first family siblings are brother and sister forming a coupling with a sister and brother of the second family, or whether the first family sibling pair are brothers forming a coupling with a pair of sisters from the second family, whenever two siblings from one family each form a couple with two siblings from another family, the offspring of these two couples will be double first cousins to one another. Instead of the 12.5% consanguinity that first cousins share with each other, double first cousins share a 25% consanguinity with each other. If identical twins form a coupling with a corresponding member of another set of identical twins, the children of these two couples, though legally (double)first-cousins to one another would genetically be as closely related to each other as full siblings of a non-twin set of parents would be to each other. Consanguinity, literally meaning common blood, describes how close a person is related to another in the sense of a family. ... Consanguinity, literally meaning common blood, describes how close a person is related to another in the sense of a family. ... Fraternal twin boys in the tub The term twin most notably refers to two individuals (or one of two individuals) who have shared the same uterus (womb) and usually, but not necessarily, born on the same day. ... This article is about the domestic group. ...

Sometimes the children of these unions would be called cousin-siblings, cousin-brothers, or cousin-sisters.

Note that no incest has occurred to create these close kinships. Incest is sexual activity between close family members. ...

Half-siblings share only one parent. Extrapolating, if one of John's parents and one of Mary's parents are half-siblings, then John and Mary are half-cousins. The half-sibling of each of their respective parents would be their half-aunt or half-uncle but these terms though technically correct are rarely used in practice. While it would not be unusual to hear of another's half-brother, or half-sister, so described, in common usage one would rarely hear of another's half-cousins or half-aunt, so described, and instead hear them described simply as the other's cousin or aunt. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Chart

The closest relationship prevails - note that cousinship is not calculated between individuals when one is descended from the other, for example, two individuals are not called cousins if they are any degree of grandparent, parent and child. Also cousinship is not calculated between individuals of any degree of aunt/uncle and nephew/niece relationship to each other.

Grandparents are family members, the father and mother of a persons own father and mother, being respectively grandfather and grandmother. ...

Chart relationships as sentences

Reminder: The closest relationship prevails - note that cousinship is not calculated between individuals when one is descended from the other, for example, two individuals are not called cousins if they are any degree of grandparent, parent and child. Also cousinship is not calculated between individuals of any degree of aunt/uncle and nephew/niece relationship to each other.

Following this pattern, it can be determined that xth cousin y-times removed means either of the following:

Mathematical definitions

The family relationship between two individuals a and b, where G_a and G_b respectively are the number of generations between each individual and their nearest common ancestor, can be calculated by the following: Generation (From the Greek Î³Î¹Î³Î½Î¿Î¼Î±Î¹), also known as procreation, is the act of producing offspring. ... An ancestor is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i. ...

So two people sharing a pair of grandparents have x=2 and y=0 and are described as being first cousins. A parent is a father or mother; one who begets or one who gives birth to or nurtures and raises a child; a relative who plays the role of guardian // Mother This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A child (plural: children) is a young human,or an individual who has not yet reached puberty. ...

If x>0 and they only share one nearest common ancestor rather than two, then the word "half" is sometimes added at the beginning of the relationship.

The mathematical definition is more elegant if you always express consanguinity as the ordered pair of natural numbers (x, y) as defined above. In that case, the relationship one has with oneself is (0, 0), the relationship between parent and child is (0, 1), and the relationship between grandparent and grandchild is (0, 2). The relationship between siblings is (1, 0); and between aunt/uncle and nephew/niece is (1, 1). First cousins are (2, 0). The first number expresses how many generations back the two people's most recent common ancestor is, while the second number expresses the generation difference between the two people. The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of any set of organisms is the most recent individual which is an ancestor of all of them. ...

Alternative Canon Law Charts

Another visual chart used in determining the legal relationship between two people who share a common ancestor (blood) is based upon a diamond shape, and is usually referred to as a Canon Law Relationship Chart. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (491x674, 146 KB) Summary Line drawing example of a Canon Law Relationship Chart used in dertermining family relationships. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (491x674, 146 KB) Summary Line drawing example of a Canon Law Relationship Chart used in dertermining family relationships. ...

The chart is used by placing the "Common Progenitor" (the person from which both people descend from) in the top space within the diamond shaped chart, and then following each line down the outside edge of the chart. Upon reaching the final place along the opposing outside edge for each person, the relationship is the determined by following that line inward to the point where the lines intersect. The information contained in the common "intersection" defines the relationship.

For a simple example, in the illustration to the right, if two siblings wanted to use the chart to determine their relationship using the chart to the right, their common parents would be placed in the top most position and each child assigned the space below and along the outside of the chart. Then, following the spaces inward, the two would meet in the "brother (sister)" diamond. If their children would want to determine their relationship, they would follow the path established by their parents, but descend an additional step below along the outside of the chart (showing that they are grandchildren of the "Common Progenitor"; following their respect lines inward, they would come to rest in the space marked "1st cousin". In cases where one side descends the outside of the diamond further than the other side because of additional generations removed from the "Common Progenitor", following the lines inward shows both the cousin rank (1st cousin, 2nd Cousin) plus the number of times (generations) "removed".

In the example provided at the right, generations one (child) through ten (8th Great Grandchild) from the Common Progenitor are provided, however the format of the chart can easily be expanded to accommodate any number of generations needed to resolve the question of relationship.

Contents

Overview GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");