Find Ancestors

Can anyone help me out?? Is there a site where you can identify relationships between individuals - I am getting confused with cousins - 2nd cousins - cousins once removed etc etc!!! Yours hopefully Clare

hi, try this one www(.)genealogy(.)about(.)com/library/nrelationshipchart(.)htm remove brackets debs

The way I think of it is as follows... First of all you work out the nearest common ancestor between Person A and Person B. Next you identify what the relationship between that nearest common ancestor and Person A is. If the ancestor is a grandparent of Person A then Person B will be a 1st cousin of some description. If the common ancestor is a great-grandparent, then Person B will be a 2nd cousin of some description. Next work out the relationship between the common ancestor and Person B. Then work out the difference between Person A's relationship and Person B's relationship. For example if the common ancestor is Person A's grandfather and Person B's great-grandfather then they are 1st cousins once removed. The once removed bit describes the generational difference between the two individuals. So in short 1st, 2nd, 3rd cousins etc. depend on how many great's the common ancestor is back. Grandparents = 1st cousins great-grandparents = 2nd cousins great-great grandparents = 3rd cousins and so on the once, twice removed etc. is determined by how many generations difference there is between the two ancestors. Actually having now written this all down... it does seem a little complicated! Sorry if I have confused you!

Thanks Debs and Sarah - will try website and hopefully be a bit clearer! lol! Clare

Debs - your suggested website was just what I was hoping for. It's easy to use and understand. Great!!! Thanking you for your help - Clare

There have been several threads on this before, with other sites. If you search for other threads first, you might find your question has already been answered. Carole

Carole - thanks for your advice, will check thread board first in future. Clare