I have been asked so many times about the whole business of cousins, "removed" and ancestral aunts and uncles.  The calculation of those is really VERY SIMPLE, yet for years and for reasons that continue to baffle me, people have drawn goofy charts and given mystifying and complicated explanations of this simple reckoning.

Here is the easy way of it all, and this is all there is to the whole matter:    Find the MOST recent common ancestor that you share with someone else; COUNT the number of "greats" in the title of that ancestor; add ONE, and that is the DEGREE of cousinhood.  Thus, if we are related through a common great-great grandmother (2 greats), take those two greats in her name and add one (2+1=3), so we are third cousins.   If our 4th great grandfather is our most recent ancestor, we are 5th cousins.

Aunts and uncles are calculated  exactly the same way.  Take the number of "greats" in the title of the ancestor and add one more "great", and you have the title for the aunts and uncles who were brothers and sisters of that ancestor.  So it is that a sister of your great-grandmother (1 great) is your great-great aunt (2 greats).     

Now, the "removed" part simply designates the number of generations that you and that cousin do NOT share.  SO, as to you and your second cousin,  your children are "once removed" from that cousin, and the grandchildren of your second cousin each are your "second cousins, twice removed", and on and on.

This is ALL there is to the whole matter.    

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