Cousin chart and calculator with the path drawn between you

Count from your nearest shared ancestor, or the cousin number comes out too high. Ancestry's help page gives the example: you and a first cousin may both descend from your great-great-grandmother, but your shared grandparent is the one you count from.

Removed counts generations in either direction, so your parent's first cousin and your first cousin's child are both first cousins once removed. Our first cousin once removed guide has a tree for each case.

For the name of one relative, the chart is enough and you don't need a family tree app.

The cousin chart up to 6 generations

Rows are how many generations you are below your nearest shared ancestor, and columns are your relative's count. The grid copies JewishGen's relationship chart with its abbreviations written out. "1x removed" means once removed.

Siblings, aunts and in-laws aren't cousins

If either count is 0, one of you descends directly from the other. If neither is 0 and either is 1, they're your sibling, aunt or uncle, or niece or nephew (with grand or great added). Neither is a cousin. The chart shows both cases in its first two rows and columns.

Ancestry calls your grandparent's sister your grandaunt, and notes that many people say great-aunt instead and that "the word varies by family and region".

The calculator names full blood relationships through one line of descent, so it has no answer for in-laws or step-relatives. Ancestry treats anyone related through a half-sibling, yours or an ancestor's, as a half relation, so add "half" yourself. Double cousins are related two ways, so look up each line separately.

How to read the cousin chart

When the shared ancestors are a couple, count them as one generation. JewishGen's chart follows the male line for simplicity and notes the answer is the same through either sex.

1. Count how many generations you are below your nearest shared ancestor: 1 for a child, 2 for a grandchild, and so on. That number is your row.
2. Count your relative's generations in the same way to find their column.
3. Read the square where they cross. In the cousin squares, that's what your relative is to you. Outside them, the chart names whoever has the larger count. If that's you, read the term the other way: niece becomes aunt, grandchild becomes grandparent.

Say your nearest shared ancestor is your great-great-grandmother, and your relative is her grandchild through a different child of hers. You're four generations below her and your relative is two below. Row 4, column 2 reads first cousin twice removed: your relative is your grandparent's first cousin.

The rule also runs backwards. If a match is listed as your third cousin once removed, the smaller count is 4 (third plus one) and the other is one more, so the pair of you sit at row 4, column 5 in one order or the other.

You can also work from the path: go up your own line, across to a sibling, then down. "My grandparent's sibling's grandchild" is a second cousin, because you both descend from that grandparent's parents.

JewishGen notes that if your grandparents were first cousins, you're your own third cousin. You're four generations below their shared grandparents along both lines, and row 4, column 4 reads third cousin.