Saturday, May 3, 2014

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How Many Cousins Do You Know You Have?

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 




Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1)  Take both sets of your grandparents and figure out how many first cousins you have, and how many first cousins removed (a child or grandchild of a first cousin) you have.

2)  Extra Credit:  Take all four sets of your great-grandparents and figure out how many second cousins you have, and how many second cousins removed you have.

HINT:  Make a Descendants Chart with your genealogy software program!

3)  Tell us the grandparents and great-grandparents names, but don't give the name of living cousins unless you want to.  

4)  Are there any of those lines that you don't know all of the cousins names?  Do you care?  
5)  Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post of your own.  Be sure to drop a comment to this post to link to your work.  

Here's mine:

1a)  Lyle Lawrence and Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer had only one child, my mother, so I have no cousins in this line.

1b)  Frederick Walton and Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver had seven children, but only five had children (one died as a child, one married and had no children).  The offspring:

*  Marion had one daughter.  She has no children.

*  Evelyn had one daughter and two sons (3 first cousins).  The daughter had 5 children (first cousins once removed), and the 5 children had 11 children (first cousins twice removed, and those 11  have 5 children (first cousins 3 times removed)); one son had three children (first cousins once removed), and they have 7 children (first cousins twice removed); the second son had 3 children (first cousins once removed) and they have 6 children (first cousins twice removed).

*  Ruth had 2 daughters (first cousins).  One daughter has no children.  One daughter had 2 daughters (first cousins once removed), and those two daughters have 5 children (first cousins twice removed).

*  Ed had a son and a daughter (first cousins).  The daughter has no children.  The son had two children (first cousins once removed), but they have no children.

The count for the grandparents is (to date!):

*  First cousins:  8
*  First cousins once removed:  18
*  First cousins twice removed:  22
*  First cousins three times removed:  5

2a)  Great-grandparents Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer:  They had two children - my grandfather and a baby who died as an infant.  No additional cousins here.

2b)  Great-grandparents Charles and Georgianna (Kermp) Auble:  They had one child - my grandmother.  No additional cousins here.  My mother had no first cousins!

2c)  Great-grandparents Frank Walton and Hattie (Hildreth) Seaver:  They had three children - my grandfather, one son died as a boy, the third married but had no children.  No additional cousins 
here! 

2d)  Great-grandparents Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond had 9 children, and 8 of them married and had children.  

*  Anne had 13 children (first cousin once removed), who had 2 children (second cousins), who had at least 2 children (second cousins once removed).

*  Henry had 2 children (first cousins once removed), who had 2 children (second cousins).  I've lost track of this family line.

*  Everett had 3 children (first cousins once removed).  I've lost track of this family line.

*  Grace had 1 son (first cousin once removed), who had 2 children (second cousins), who had 8 children (second cousins once removed) who had at least 2 children (second cousins twice removed).

*  Emily had 1 child (first cousin once removed) who had one child (second cousin), who had no children.

*  Charles had 1 child (first cousin once removed) who had no children.

*  Edwin had 1 child (first cousin once removed), who had 1 child (second cousin), who had 3 children (second cousins once removed).

*  James had one child (first cousin once removed), and I have lost track of her.

The count for the great-grandparents is (known to date!):

*  First cousins once removed:  13

*  Second cousins: 8
*  Second cousins once removed:  13
*  Second cousins twice removed:  2

4)  I think I know all of the first cousins offspring, although I should double check with my cousins again.

I know that I've lost track of several of the Richmond lines because of marriage.  

The total is 89 known first or second cousins N times removed, and the total is probably higher.  

They can all be put on the Richmond Descendants Chart:



This really points out to me that we usually know the names of our first cousins, but often lose track of the second cousins.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver




13 comments:

Caro said...

I took a slightly different tack and added up all my cousins - from 1st cousins to 9th cousins 2x removed. Turns out I have 2,089 of them recorded in my genealogy program - and that's just the ones I know about.

GeneGinny said...

This was a bit of a chore for me, since I know so little about my Dad's family. Here's my post:
http://geneginny.blogspot.com/2014/05/sngf-counting-cousins.html

Elizabeth said...

On the paternal side there were 8 children, 30 grandchildren, 70 great grandchildren, and 88 great great grandchildren. Also a bunch of three greats. On the maternal side there were 7 children, 27 grandchildren, 51 great grandchildren, and 21 great great grandchildren. No three greats since these grandparents were a bit younger. I know/knew all of them and all of my parents first cousins and all of their children, etc.

Tessa Keough said...

I joined in the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun and posted at http://keoughcorner.blogspot.com/2014/05/counting-cousins-in-sngf.html

kinfolknews said...

Just adding up my first cousins was a task.
My paternal grandparents, Thomas and Viola Bynum, had 13 children including my dad. I have a total of 38 known first cousins here.

My maternal grandparents, Virgil and Gladys Crew, had three children including my mother. I have a total of nine first cousins here.

That's a whooping 47 first cousins.

I do know of some of the first cousins once removed, but not enough to count them all.

I didn't bother with the second cousins 'cause adding up the firsts was enough for one night. :)

Alex Daw said...

Hi Randy, thanks for this. Here's my post. http://familytreefrog.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/how-many-cousins-do-you-know-you-have.html

Fax said...

This was an interesting exercise. TMG, my genealogy program, creates a kinship report: Ancestors = 921, cousins = 2776. Of course, there are lots more unknown or unrecorded. The same report provides all the breakdowns you suggest, plus more.

Pam Carter said...

Here are my cousins (at least the ones I know about)
http://mymaineancestry.blogspot.com/2014/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Anonymous said...

1st cousins: 12
1st cousins once removed: 52
1st cousins twice removed: 73
1st cousins three times removed: 187
2nd cousins: 24
2nd cousins once removed: 115
2nd cousins twice removed: 371

Obviously some cousins of these 'types' can be found in places other than descending from grandparents or great-grandparents. How many of them do I know? Or have ever met? Very few.

Caitie G said...

Here's mine! This one was fun :)

http://genealogically-speaking.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/cousins-galore.html

Anne Young said...

Having seen Caitlin's and Alex's responses, I was interested in tackling this challenge. I had always been curious about the great number of cousins my grandmother had. By contrast I have only a few. I enjoyed the challenge, even if a bit late, thanks. http://ayfamilyhistory.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/my-grandmother-cousins.html

Kristin said...

I am really late to this challenge but enjoyed it and here's the link http://findingeliza.com/archives/17464

Rhosyncoch said...

Wow I knew we had quite a few in my family as 1 grandparent was the eldest of 10 but seeing the numbers add up was amazing

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- How Many Cousins Do You Know You Have?