Genealogy Tips Additional Links Page

 

 
Tips below taken from "About's Genealogy Tip of the Day"    (copied because they periodically change,

see their site                                                                                                     and their relationship chart)

 http://genealogy.about.com/library/tips/blcousins.htm                                        http://genealogy.about.com/library/nrelationshipchart.htm
Kissin' Cousins

If someone walked up to you and said "Hi, I'm your third cousin, once removed," would you know what they meant? Most of us don't think about our relationships in such exact terms ("cousin" seems good enough), so many of us aren't very familiar with what these words mean. When working on your family history, however, it's important to understand the various types of cousin relationships.

    • First cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you.
    • Second cousins have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents.
    • Third cousins have in common two great-great-grandparents and their ancestors.

When cousins descend from common ancestors by a different number of generations they are called “removed.”

    • Once removed means there is a difference of one generation. Your mother's first cousin would be your first cousin, once removed. She is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents.
    • Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. Your grandmother's first cousin would be your first cousin, twice removed because you are separated by two generations.

Just to complicate matters, there are also many cases of double cousins. This situation usually occurs when siblings from one family marry siblings from another family. The resulting children, grandchildren, etc.  are double cousins, because they share all four ancestors in common. These types of relationships can be difficult to determine and it is usually easiest to chart them one at a time (through one family line and then through the other line).
Naming Patterns and Customs

Naming patterns may provide important clues in family history research. People of all countries tend to name children after other family members, often using an unwritten, but traditional formula. In Ireland, as in many other countries, the first-born son was generally named after the paternal grandfather, and the first daughter after the maternal grandmother. This was an especially common practice during the 19th century and earlier. Surnames in some Scandinavian countries are indicative of a child's parentage - the Swedish surname Johannson, for example, indicates the "son of Johann." Surname endings can even indicate the country of origin. The -son ending mentioned above is typically Swedish, while -sen (Jensen) is more likely to be Danish or Norwegian.

Middle names can also provide wonderful clues to ancestry. Children have often been given the mother's maiden name as a middle name to identify their ancestral ties. Or they may have been named after an uncle, aunt, or other more distant relative. French families frequently gave the father's name to a girl by changing one or two letters to a feminine form. You'll often find such family-derived names handed down from generation to generation.

The next time your genealogy research comes to a standstill, try looking at family names for patterns - the answer may have been right under your nose all along.