GENEALOGY BRICK WALL BUSTERS EDITORS of FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE counting cousins How, exactly, are you related to the child of your great-great-grandmother’s sister’s son? We’ll explain the steps to calculating cousinhood. BY DIANE HADDAD . EVER PLAY THE “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game? It with each generation. Count back 10 generations, and that’s involves linking famous actors and actresses to Kevin Bacon 2,046 total ancestors, which means the cousin potential is via movies they’ve appeared in together. George Clooney, exponential. You could have millions of them: fourth cousins, for example, clocks in with a Bacon number of just 2: He second cousins three times removed, tenth cousins twice appeared in Hail, Caesar! with Matthew Skomo, who was in removed … we could go on. And with DNA testing, Face- X-Men: First Class with Kevin Bacon. Turns out just about book <www.facebook.com>, online family trees and message everyone in Hollywood is six or fewer movies “removed” boards that connect you to new cousins every day, you’re from Kevin Bacon. (Check it out at <oracleofbacon.org>.) And bound to get curious about exactly how you’re related. Good supposedly, none of us is further than six connections from thing we’re here with this guide on figuring out what kind of any one person on earth—even Kevin Bacon. cousins you are, based on degrees of separation from shared When it comes to cousinhood, the relationship possibili- ancestors. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even discover Kevin ties are just as endless. Your number of grandparents doubles Bacon’s your kin. Starting simply Take my son, Leo. He and my cousin Matt (son of my mom’s What makes someone a cousin? The simple fact that you sister) share my grandmother as their most recent common share an ancestor with that person. But to understand the ancestor. My grandma is Matt’s grandmother, too, but she’s intricacies of cousin relationships, you have to get this: Your Leo’s great-grandmother. Matt is just one generation away ancestors are only the people in your direct line: parents, from their common ancestor, so he and Leo are first cousins. grandparents, great-grandparents and so on. Your ancestors’ But Leo is two generations away from the common ances- siblings are aunts and uncles (no matter how many greats you tor—making Leo and Matt first cousins once removed. They add)—not ancestors. share about 6.25 percent of their DNA. Of course, the further Just about any other blood relative who isn’t your sibling, removed a cousin gets, the less DNA they share, as you can ancestor, aunt or uncle is your cousin. To determine your see in the chart later in this article. You can be distantly degree of cousinhood—first, second, third, fourth—you need related to long-deceased individuals through removes, too. to identify the ancestor you share with your cousin, and how For example, say you’re fourth cousins three times removed many generations separate each of you from that ancestor. with Warren G. Harding. (Because of the mind-boggling Your first cousin (sometimes called a full cousin, but usu- number of cousins you have, there’s bound to be someone ally just a cousin) is the child of your aunt or uncle. The famous in your family tree.) That would mean your sixth- most recent ancestor you and your first cousin share is your great-grandparents are Harding’s third-great-grandparents. grandparent. You typically share 12.5 percent of your first Anthropologists call the process of figuring out cousin cousin’s DNA. relationships “collateral degree calculation” (don’t worry, we Your second cousins are the children of your parents’ first won’t spring that term on you again). Multiple removes and cousins. Take a look at your family tree, and you’ll see that degrees of cousinhood can get complicated, but you don’t you and your second cousins have the same great-grandpar- ents. You typically share 3.125 percent of your second cous- in’s DNA. For third cousins, great-great-grandparents are the Relative Surprises most recent common ancestor and you share .781 percent of Think you have unusual relatives? Genealogy makes strange your DNA. You get the picture. bedfellows. Just consider these odd couples: Time for a pop quiz: What’s the relationship between your ȕ ELVIS PRESLEY and JIMMY CARTER are sixth cousins granddaughter and your sister’s grandson? And the answer is once removed through Andreas Preslar and Antje Wells, who … second cousins. The kids’ most recent common ancestor is were married in May 1723. their great-grandparent (your parent). ȕ MADONNA and CELINE DION are 10th cousins once removed through Jean Guyon, an early settler of Quebec. How far removed? ȕ BARACK OBAMA and DICK CHENEY are eighth cousins “I aced that one,” you say, “but what about a removed cousin? through Mareen Devall, a 17th century immigrant from Or a fourth cousin three times removed? What does that France. OBAMA and GEORGE W. BUSH are 10th cousins once mean?” removed, linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in A remove happens when two cousins have different num- 1662. bers of generations back to their most recent common ances- ȕ GEORGE W. BUSH and HUGH HEFNER are 11th cousins tor. One generation of difference equals one remove. First, twice removed through Thomas Richards, who died about 1650. count back the number of generations from each cousin to ȕ HILLARY CLINTON and ANGELINA JOLIE are ninth the common ancestor. The cousin with the lower number cousins twice removed through Jean Cusson, who died in St. of generations determines the degree of cousinhood—first, Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718. second, third and so on. Then subtract the lower number of ȕ BEN AFFLECK and his pal MATT DAMON are 10th generations from the higher number to find out how many cousins once removed through William Knowlton, an Ipswich, times removed the cousins are. Mass., bricklayer who died in 1655. ȕ PRINCE ALBERT OF MONACO is seventh cousins with NAPOLEON BONAPARTE and 17th cousins with TOM HANKS. ȕ BRITNEY SPEARS and JOHN EDWARDS are seventh cousins three times removed through John Stovall, born in the TIP: Remember that the shared DNA numbers shown in the early 1700s in Virginia. chart later in this article are averages. Due to the random ȕ DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES, and SARAH PALIN are way DNA is inherited, it’s possible you don’t share any DNA 10th cousins. Their ninth great-grandfather, John Strong, was with a given relative beyond about second cousins. born in 1605. have to be a scientist to get it right. The chart on the next page will help straighten out your cousin confusion; just fol- Your ancestors are only the low the instructions for using it. For example, to figure out how you’re related to your great-great-grandmother’s sister’s people in your direct line — son, first determine the ancestor you share with him: your third-great-grandmother. Find her on the chart, then count parents, grandparents, great- down one generation for the sister and one more to the sis- ter’s son. He’s your first cousin three times removed. grandparents and so on. Double the fun You may have heard people say they’re double cousins. That’s a special cousin category for the offspring of brothers- and sisters-in-law—for example, your sister weds your husband’s brother. Instead of sharing one set of grandparents, as first As you might expect, double cousins have more DNA in com- cousins do, double cousins share both sets of grandparents. mon than typical first cousins—about 25 percent. Despite how it sounds, a kissing cousin isn’t a cousin you marry. Rather, it’s any distant relative you know well enough Resources to kiss hello at family gatherings. Now we’re begging the ȕ Ancestor Search Cousin Relationship Calculator <www. question: How close a cousin is too close to wed? States have searchforancestors.com/utility/cousincalculator.html> different laws governing consanguineous marriages (and ȕ DNA-explained.com: Why Are My Predicted Cousin we’ve heard all the jokes, so just stop right now). It’s best to Relationships Wrong? <dna-explained.com/2013/10/ ask a lawyer about statutes for the state in question. 21/why-are-my-predicted-cousin-relationships-wrong> And while we’re on the topic: Due to limited mobility in ȕ DNA Matches: What to Do With All Your Genetic our ancestors’ day, most of us have instances in our fam- Fourth Cousins <lisalouisecooke.com/2015/01/ ily trees of cousins who married, whether knowingly or dna-matches-genetic-4th-cousins> unknowingly. That means you can be related to the same ȕ Dozens of Cousins by Lois Horowitz (Ten Speed Press) person in multiple ways. ȕ The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Someone you’re related to by marriage, rather than by Genealogy by Blaine T. Bettinger (Family Tree Books) blood, isn’t your cousin. You might be in-laws, or your rela- ȕ International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki: tionship might not have a name other than (we hope) good Autosomal DNA Statistics friends. You can read more about collateral degree calcula- <isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_statistics> tion — oops, we mean family relationships—in Dozens of ȕ iRoots.net Cousin Calculator Cousins by Lois Horowitz (Ten Speed Press) and Jackie <www.iroots.net/tools/cusncalc> Smith Arnold’s Kinship: It’s All Relative, 2nd edition (Genea- ȕ Kinship: It’s All Relative, 2nd edition by Jackie Smith logical Publishing Co.).