Test your knowledge with this question: What relation to you is the child of your cousin?
- Nephew
- Cousin
- Second cousin
- First cousin once removed
The question raises an issue of “consanguinity” – the relatedness of family members. As an estate planning and elder law attorney, I constantly need to know how to refer to relations based on blood and marriage.
I rely on a consanguinity chart to help me with the trickier questions of relatedness. You can find an example here. A chart visualizes the relations and makes it easy to find the correct term.
As to the quiz question above, most people pick C, second cousin. But the correct answer is D, first cousin once removed.
Your first cousin is the child of your aunt or uncle, and also the grandchild of your grandparents. Your second cousin is the grandchild of your great-aunt or great-uncle, and also the great-grandchild of your great-grandparents.
But the child of your cousin is your first cousin once removed. What makes the title “first cousin once removed” so confusing to me is that it is also the title of your second cousin’s father or mother. It turns out, though, that each type of “first cousin once removed” shares the same percentage of your DNA.
See why I use a consanguinity chart? If you do too, you’ll keep even distant relations straight.
