Cousins, removed, half and step
The words families use for relatives can be confusing once you go past first cousins. Here they are in plain language. To work one out, use the relationship calculator.
- Cousin numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd…)
- Count the generations from you up to the ancestor you share, then subtract one. You share grandparents with your 1st cousins, great-grandparents with your 2nd cousins, 2nd great-grandparents with your 3rd cousins.
- Removed
- How many generations apart two cousins are. Your 1st cousin's child is your 1st cousin once removed; their grandchild is your 1st cousin twice removed. It works both ways: you're their 1st cousin once removed too.
- Great and grand
- Your parent's parent is a grandparent; each step further adds a "great". After two greats, numbers are easier: your 3rd great-grandfather is your great-great-great-grandfather.
- Great-aunt and grand-aunt
- The same person: your grandparent's sister. Many families say great-aunt; some genealogists prefer grand-aunt. Your great-grandparent's sister is your 2nd great-aunt.
- Grandniece and great-niece
- Also the same person: your sibling's grandchild. TempleKit uses grandniece and grandnephew.
- Half
- You share one parent of the couple, not both. Half-siblings share one parent; half 1st cousins share one grandparent.
- Step
- A relationship through marriage, not descent. Your mother's husband who isn't your father is your stepfather; his father is your step-grandfather. Step-relatives share no ancestor with you, but their names are often in your family's care at the temple.
- In-law
- Family of your spouse, or the spouses of your family: your sister's husband is your brother-in-law.
- Double cousins
- When two siblings from one family marry two siblings from another, their children are double 1st cousins: they share both sets of grandparents.
And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect.
More guides
Family name cards, explainedEvery box on the card, and what TempleKit addsPrint family name cards two-sidedActual size, flip on long edge, and lining up the backReservations, limits and expiryThe 300-row limit, the two-year clock, and sharing with the templeFree record sources by countryWhere to look next, country by country