Crazy Confusing COUSIN THING.

[mstattersall]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> Once again we are discussing Genealogy in the main group.
> Personally, and I know I'm not alone in this, I find the whole 1st
> cousin, 2nd cousin, once removed, twice removed thing very 
confusing.
> 
(snip)

To simplify (sort of), start with "me." 

My mother/father's siblings are my uncles and aunts. Their children 
are my first cousins, and I am theirs. The children of my first 
cousins are my first cousins, once removed. The grandchildren of my 
first cousins are my first cousins, twice removed, and so on.

My granny/grandpa's siblings are my great-uncles and -aunts, and 
their children (the same generation of my parents) are my second 
cousins. However, to them, I am their first cousin, once removed, 
because I am the child of one of their first cousins. My child would 
be their first cousin, twice removed.

My great-grandparents' siblings would be my great-great-uncles and 
aunts, and their children (same generation as my grandparents) would 
be my third cousins. To them I would be their second cousin, once 
removed, and my child would be their second cousin, twice removed.

Of course this is all moot if you are from certain parts of the 
southern U.S., where it is possible to be your own grandparent.

(Song: "I'm My Own Grandpa" by Homer & Jethro)
Many many years ago when I was twenty three,
I got married to a widow who was pretty as could be.
     
This widow had a grown-up daughter
Who had hair of red.
My father fell in love with her,
And soon the two were wed.
     
This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life.
My daughter was my mother,
For she was my father's wife.
     
To complicate the matters worse,
Although it brought me joy,
I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy.
     
My little baby then became
A brother-in-law to dad.
And so became my uncle,
Though it made me very sad.
     
For if he was my uncle,
Then that also made him brother
To the widow's grown-up daughter
Who, of course, was my step-mother.
     
Father's wife then had a son,
Who kept them on the run.
And he became my grandson,
For he was my daughter's son.
     
My wife is now my mother's mother
And it makes me blue.
Because, although she is my wife,
She's my grandmother too.
     
If my wife is my grandmother,
Then I am her grandchild.
And every time I think of it,
It simply drives me wild.
     
For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw.
As the husband of my grandmother,
I am my own grandpa


Ms. Tattersall
Just as confused as you are