It's All Relative

I’m having a great time here in south Texas with my family. (The weather is terrific, by the way.)

My dad was catching me up on various relatives last night and he showed me a Christmas photo that he received from some distant cousins who I hadn’t seen in years. They would often be at family gatherings, I knew we were related, but didn’t know exactly how.


Having studied “degrees of sanguinity” in the Catholic seminary, I wanted to figure out just how these nice folks were related to me.

Dad explained the line of who-was-related-to-whom to get to these relatives in the photo. Turns out, woman seated is my second cousin once removed. She’s my dad’s second cousin.

The three middle-aged women behind her are my third cousins. My paternal great-great- grandparents are our common-denominator. The children in the photo are my third cousins once removed.

Here’s something pretty neat, too. My paternal grandmother had double-first cousins. That is, her parents were married to the brother and sister from the same family. My dad mentioned that he had seen one of his “cousins” recently (who I’ve met.) After doing some calculating, I figured out that was his double-second cousin – who would be my double-second cousin once removed – BUT would be genetically related as close as a first cousin once removed.

Isn’t that cool?

Anyway, it’s really good to be home.

Oh. And from the photograph, I don’t think it’s necessary to mention that my relatives all live in Texas.