Cousins! 1st? 2nd? & Who removed them anyway?

The other day on the TV, I heard that two of the American Presidential nominees were 9^th cousins. Growing up through life I have occasionally come across people who would refer to this or that person as a 2^nd or 3^rd cousin or some such and some of them even being so many times removed. However I never knew how they worked out this complicated system and why they were removed in the first place!

In fact I had trouble-finding people who could accurately tell me who my cousins children were to me, and what their children were to my children. Various people had various theories and compilations. In the end it seemed too confusing to me and I stopped thinking about it. Until the other day that is when reading a local version of an English Paper (International Express, Australian Edition 1-7 Jan 2008)

Reading their “Questions Answered” Section, I came across this answer: “This third-cousin-once-removed business is not as confusing as it seems. If two people share a grandparent but not a parent, then they are first cousins. If they share a great- grandparent but not a grandparent, then they are second cousins. And so on, adding one for each generation you have to go back to find a common ancestor.

The once-removed or twice removed business comes when the people are on different levels in the family tree, each removal representing one level difference. So your first cousin’s children are your first cousins once removed.”

So now I know that my cousins children are my first cousins once removed and their children, my first cousins twice removed! Likewise my cousin’s children and my children are 2^nd cousins. Simple when explained isn’t it?

Yet how often do we go through life confused by seemingly complicated things, when in fact they are very simple and easy to understand once you know the proper rules?

{Now here all I need is someone to come along and complicate things by saying, “Well that’s how they do it in England but here, we do it differently!” In fact I do know that In South Africa the Africans refer to their first cousins as their brothers and sisters, which can make things confusing to us westerners! But back to my blog.}

How often are we confused by simple things that seem confusing but aren’t when eventually checked out? How often do we ignore theses seemingly confusing things and never try and find out properly, because (we feel) it is not worth the bother, and yet still share our ignorance of what we think we know, to others and thereby confuse them with conflicting or misleading information?

So this year why not try to resolve to not pass on information that you are not 100% sure of, and to also check out the confusing things in your life, no matter how trivial or unimportant they may seem to you now.

This year resolve to not be confused by the simple, and not to confuse others with your ignorance or faulty information.