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A Cousin is a relative with whom one shares a common grandparent or more distant ancestor, and who is not in one's own line of descent. The
term cousin, never applies where there are other specific terms to describe
relationships.
If someone walked up to you and said "Howdy, I'm your
third cousin, twice removed, "would you have any idea what they meant? Most
people have a good understanding of basic relationship words such as "mother,"
"father," "aunt," "uncle," "brother," and "sister." But what about the
relationship terms that we don't use in everyday speech? Terms like "second
cousin" and "first cousin," once removed? We don't tend to speak about our
relationship in such exact terms ("cousin" seems good enough when you are
introducing one person to another), so most of us aren't familiar with what
these words mean.
RelationshipTerms :
Cousin (a.k.a "first cousin")
Your first
cousins are the people in your family who have two the same grandparents as you.
In other words, they are the children of your aunts and
uncles.
Second Cousin
Your second counsins 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 "remove" is used to
describe a relationship, it indicates that the two people are from different
generations. You and your first cousins are in the same generation (two
generations younger than your grandparents), so the word "removed" is not used
to describe your relationship.
The word "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 cousin
twice removed.
Cross Cousin
A cousin who is the child
of one's mother's brother or one's father's sister.
Parallel
Cousin
A cousin who is the child of one's mother's sister or one's
father's brother. Parallel cousins are the children of two brothers or two
sisters.
Double Cousins
If two in one family marry
two sisters from another, and each couple has a child, the offspring are double
cousins. The addition of the word double to the first cousin term is the result
of the number of common grandparents that are shared in this case. Regular first
cousins share only one set of common ancestors, while double first cousin share
all lineal and collateral relatives.
Kissing Cousin
A
distant relative known well enough to be kissed when greeted, cousin
marriage.
