Sometimes, it’s not so easy to fit your entire family neatly into one of those pre-made family tree templates. After you fill in the space for yourself, your parents, and your siblings, everything gets a little bit more complex. Does someone in your family have a great aunt? Can you identify who is your third cousin? These are the kinds of relationship terms that tend to make genealogy into something of a challenge.
Before you delve too deeply into the connections between you and your ancestors, you might want to take some time to get a good understanding of some of the quirkier kinship terms. For the sake of clarity, I am going to describe these terms as they relate to you. Once you get how it all works, you can then go and figure out how these terms apply to the people your child is related to, or your spouse is related to.
The word “great”, in genealogy, does not indicate that a person was exceptionally wonderful in some way, or that the person was larger than average. Instead, it is a term used to indicate a relationship between a person and another person who is one generation removed from the first person. It works like this: You have a mother. Her mother is your grandmother. You have a child. Your grandmother is your child’s great grandmother. The term great can be used for an aunt or an uncle as well. For example: Your mother has a sister. This woman is your aunt. You have a child. Your aunt is your child’s great aunt. (Your child’s aunt would be your sister, or your spouse’s sister). The same concept works for great grandfathers, and great uncles. You can also work this backwards. Your child’s great grandmother would call your child her great grandson (or great granddaughter). Your child’s great aunt would call him her great nephew (or great niece if your child is a girl).
Now, when you start talking about your cousins, things get even more complex. There are no great cousins. It just is not said that way. Instead, you may have first cousins, second cousins, or third cousins. Your first cousins are the children of your aunts and uncles. Your second cousins are the people who are a cousin to your parents. Your third cousins are the children of your parent’s cousins. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to defining kinship terms between cousins.