I'm not a genealogist, as you know, but that is amusing--and rather dizzying!

Love your post!!!! I do exactly the same thing in my tree and have some really funny relationships too. It's great to have everybody there though especially when I am trying to figure out how my DNA matches are related which often remains a mystery!

Wanda, the "'first cousin, x times removed'" is easier to understand than most folks realize, because although it sounds complicated, it really isn't. All you have to do is remember that "removed" refers to difference between generations of the same relationship.

For example, we all know who our first cousins are, right? That's easy. (Of course, we've always just referred to them as plain old cousins, rather than saying "first cousins.") Well, if your cousin Jane or cousin John has kids, those kids are your first cousins 1x removed (also said as first cousins, once removed). We're still in the same "first cousin" relationship, but there's a difference in generations. A real-life example is that my niece Rose (daughter of my older sister) and my nephew Joseph (son of my younger sister) are first cousins. Rose and her husband have a daughter named Mary. Mary and Joseph are first cousins once removed.

Getting back to your cousin Jane (or cousin John) --- Jane's/John's children are your first cousins once removed. But when Jane's/John's child has children, those newest children are your first cousins twice removed, because they are two generations away from you and your first cousin. In other words, when Rose's daughter Mary has children, Mary's children and Joseph will be first cousins twice removed.

Another way to remember all of this is:

You and your first cousins have the same grandparents.

You and your second cousins have the same great-grandparents, but not the same grandparents. For example, my grandfather Giuseppe had quite a few siblings (as most Italian Catholics living in Italy). The grandchildren of his siblings are my second cousins -- we are two generations down from our common ancestors (our great-grandparents). So, Giuseppe's brother Augusto's grandchildren are my second cousins, because we have the same great-grandparents - Cesare and Amelia - (Giuseppe and Augusto's parents), but we have different grandparents. Augusto's grandson Giancarlo has a son name Mirko, and Mirko is my second cousin once removed, because Mirko is from a different generation, but we have common ancestors "up the line."

Third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents. And the "removed" works the same way as with first and second cousins.

I won't even go into the scenarios when siblings from one family marry siblings from another family! :-)

And "in the old days" folks would just refer to any level of cousin as "cousin," which can make genealogy research difficult. For example, in looking at ship manifests that show the name and relationship at the immigrant's destination, you will often see "cousin" and then a name and address. But you don't know if it's a first cousin, second cousin, etc.

And making that even more difficult is the naming conventions that many nationalities followed. For example, the Italian naming convention is to name the first-born male and first-born female after the paternal grandparents, and the second-born male and second-born female after the maternal grandparents. That certainly held true on my father's side -- for both his father's and his mother's families. And it doesn't help that my mother's side is Irish, and the Irish naming convention is the same as the Italian's! My mother's side didn't follow it as closely for the folks born here in the USA. That, and the fact that they settled in Minnesota and Minnesota has so much stuff online, has made my maternal research a lot easier!

I was telling someone just the other day about a relative that was so distantly related that I had to check the software for the correct relationship ;-)

Both my German line and my English line followed that naming pattern. And almost everybody used mother or grandmother maiden names as middle names. Most of the time that was a huge help. My family has a bunch of those siblings marrying siblings. Makes quite a spider web!

Reminds me of a woman who worked the same place I did. She had a new "story" every day about her neighbor's cousin's 2nd husband's wife's stepmother who ended up being related to her brother in law's mother in law's grandfather's brother. Or something. The relationships were more interesting than the gossip she was telling!

Lindsey, we do that with cousins--the living ones--in my family. We do know how we all are related, but when talking about my second cousin's, first cousin's, first cousin's daughter, let alone the third and fourth cousins and all the removes, we just say "cousin", even though, technically, she and I aren't really related at all. :) That is, except for the cousins who are elders. They're called "aunt" and "uncle", even though they're first or second cousins, once or twice removed (or occasionally same level first cousins with generationally different birth dates). That's the thing about clannish families. Think of it like the Watership Down counting system. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1000. Grandpa, aunt, cousin, cousin, kissing cousin, play cousin, cousin, cousin, cousin.

Good luck with piecing it out. Kind of you to share your efforts with all.

Thank you, Lindsey. My head is spinning a little bit, but it makes sense.

I recently tried to explain to my grandson that some of his cousins are related to him maternally and paternally. Before I was born, my mother's sister married a man, so he was my Uncle by marriage. His sister's granddaughter married my son. So, my daughter-in-law has cousins by blood, who are also my cousins by blood...but DIL and I are not related.

There are lots of relationship charts available online, and there's always the software!