Kin

On Christmas Eve day I met a new member of my family. Not a new-born, but a 30 something year old "cousin," named Rebecca. She is my dad's cousin's daughter, which we figured made her my cousin, but we couldn't figure out whether she was my second cousin or my first cousin once removed or something completely different.

So, my step-mom did a bit of research and found this definition of cousin on Wikipedia:

"In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares a common ancestor, but in modern usage the term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's own line of descent, or where there is a more specific term to describe the relationship, e.g., brother, sister, aunt, uncle.

A system of degrees and removes is used to describe the relationship between the two cousins and the ancestor they have in common. The degree (first, second, third cousin, etc.) indicates the minimum number of generations between either cousin and the nearest common ancestor; the remove (once removed, twice removed, etc.) indicates the number of generations, if any, separating the two cousins from each other.

For example, a person with whom you share a grandparent (but not a parent) is a first cousin; someone with whom you share a great-grandparent (but not a grandparent) is a second cousin; and someone with whom you share a great-great-grandparent (but not a great-grandparent) is a third cousin; and so on. The child of your first cousin is your first cousin once removed because the one generation separating you and the child represents one remove. You and the child are still considered first cousins, as your own grandparent (this child's great-grandparent), as the most recent common ancestor, represents one degree.

Non-genealogical usage often eliminates the degrees and removes, and refers to people with common ancestors merely as cousins or distant cousins. Alternatively, the terms 'second cousin' and 'first cousin once removed' are often used interchangeably."

So, as I now understand it, Rebecca, this person who I met on Christmas Eve, and I are second cousins. My Dad and Rebecca are cousins once removed, since Rebecca is dad’s first cousin, but one generation removed from him.. My kids and Rebecca's kids are third cousins. My kids and Rebecca are second cousins, once removed.

As my step-mom says, "If you’re hungry for more, you can, of course, go to the Wikipedia entry for Cousin at where you will find enough discussion to make your eyes glaze over (in case this has not yet done so). The part of the article that we liked best is the part which reads, “If one goes back far enough, at some point all human beings will be found to be related according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the American National Institutes of Health .” So in accordance with that statement, we can all claim each other as kin -- which is what we’ve always done anyway."