Who should you call your blood relative?
CONSANGUINITY is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person.
CONSANGUINITY is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person.
It is an important concept considered when deciding whether two individuals can get married or whether a given person inherits property when a deceased person has not left a will.
The degree of relative consanguinity can be illustrated with a consanguinity table (pictured on the left), in which each level of lineal consanguinity (i.e., generation) appears as a row, and individuals with a collaterally-consanguineous relationship share the same row.
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares a common ancestor. In modern usage, the term is used where there is lack of a more specific term to describe the relationship: e.g., brother, sister, aunt, uncle.
The degree (first, second, third cousin, etc.) indicates the number of generations between both cousins and their nearest common ancestor.
For example, a person with whom one shares a grandparent is a first cousin; someone with whom one shares a great-grandparent is a second cousin; and someone with whom one shares a great-great-grandparent is a third cousin.
The remove (e.g. once removed, twice removed) indicates the number of generations, separating the two cousins from each other.
The child of one’s first cousin is one’s first cousin once removed because the one generation separation represents one remove. Oneself and the child are still considered first cousins, as one’s grandparent (this child’s great-grandparent), as the most recent common ancestor, represents one degree.
Equally the child of one’s great-aunt or uncle (one’s parent’s cousin) is one’s first cousin once removed because their grandparent (one’s own great-grandparent) is the most recent common ancestor.
Non-genealogical usage often eliminates the degrees and removes, and refers to people with common ancestors merely as cousins or distant cousins.
It is an important concept considered when deciding whether two individuals can get married or whether a given person inherits property when a deceased person has not left a will.
The degree of relative consanguinity can be illustrated with a consanguinity table (pictured on the left), in which each level of lineal consanguinity (i.e., generation) appears as a row, and individuals with a collaterally-consanguineous relationship share the same row.
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares a common ancestor. In modern usage, the term is used where there is lack of a more specific term to describe the relationship: e.g., brother, sister, aunt, uncle.
The degree (first, second, third cousin, etc.) indicates the number of generations between both cousins and their nearest common ancestor.
For example, a person with whom one shares a grandparent is a first cousin; someone with whom one shares a great-grandparent is a second cousin; and someone with whom one shares a great-great-grandparent is a third cousin.
The remove (e.g. once removed, twice removed) indicates the number of generations, separating the two cousins from each other.
The child of one’s first cousin is one’s first cousin once removed because the one generation separation represents one remove. Oneself and the child are still considered first cousins, as one’s grandparent (this child’s great-grandparent), as the most recent common ancestor, represents one degree.
Equally the child of one’s great-aunt or uncle (one’s parent’s cousin) is one’s first cousin once removed because their grandparent (one’s own great-grandparent) is the most recent common ancestor.
Non-genealogical usage often eliminates the degrees and removes, and refers to people with common ancestors merely as cousins or distant cousins.