Third Cousin Twice Removed? | Richland Library

I don’t know about you, but I’ve already gotten an invitation to a family reunion planned for this summer. Before I visit with distant relatives, I want to make sure I remember how exactly my distant cousins are related to me.

Sometimes family relationships are complicated with all those cousins multiple times removed from you. Is there an easy way to figure it all out? What does it mean to be a third cousin twice removed?

Image of the Lafferty family reunion at The State-Record Company recreation area on May 28, 1960.

Lafferty family reunion at The State-Record Company recreation area, 1960. Photo from The State Newspaper Photograph Archive.

1st cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins?

How do we know if someone is our first cousin or second cousin? It depends on who the most recent ancestor is that you and your cousin share in common. Here’s a tip: the cousin number corresponds to the number of Gs in your closest shared ancestor. So you share grandparents with your 1st cousin, great-grandparents with your 2nd cousin, and great-great-grandparents with your 3rd cousin.

Image of Kirkland family descendants at a family reunion at the Carolina Inn on August 15, 1981.

Kirkland family descendants, 1981. Photo from The State Newspaper Photograph Archive.

Once removed, twice removed, three times removed?

Sometimes there is another number in a cousin relationship showing how many generations removed you are from that cousin. If there is no “removed” in the relationship, it means you and your cousin are on the same generation. But if you are cousins twice removed, that means your cousin is either part of your grandparents’ generation or your grandchildren’s generation because they are two generations removed from you.

Image of the Boozer family reunion on May 30, 1960.

Boozer family reunion in Lexington County, 1960. Photo from The State Newspaper Photograph Archive.

One useful tool for putting this all together is the Shared Centimorgan Project Tool on the DNA Painter website. This tool—based on the Shared Centimorgan Project by Blaine Bettinger—shows dozens of different family relationships and who the most recent common ancestors are as well as how many generations removed they are.

And if you have done DNA testing for genealogy, you can use this tool to find out possible genealogical relationships with DNA matches using the percentage of DNA or the number of centimorgans you share with that DNA match.