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News: MIDDLE KINGDOM - Collected Wisdom - The relative closeness of cousins ~Philip Jackman~ 02/23/1995 The Globe and Mail Page A18 All material copyright Thomson Canada Limited or its licensors. All rights reserved. THIS week Collected Wisdom is heading out into the back 40 to give the family tree a good shake and see what falls out. The question: Toronto's Donna Crossman wanted to know the distinctions among first cousin, second cousin, first cousin once removed, and so on. The answer: Well, CW was deluged with replies to this one, some of them accompanied by hideously complex genealogies. However, all things being relative, we like this reply from David J. McMurray of Kingston: "Generally, cousins with the same number (first, second, etc.) are of the same generation, while 'removed' cousins are one or more generations apart." Now it's time to study this cheap, homemade diagram, which is all CW's graphics budget could run to this week: Generation 1 BILL MARY Generation 2 JOHN BETH Generation 3 FRED JANE Generation 4 DICK NINA "Bill and Mary are siblings. Their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are John, Fred and Dick, and Beth, Jane and Nina, respectively. Therefore, John and Beth are first cousins. Fred and Jane are second cousins. Dick and Nina are third cousins. "John and Jane are first cousins once removed, as are Beth and Fred. John and Nina are first cousins, twice removed, as are Beth and Dick. And Fred and Nina are second cousins once removed, as are Jane and Dick." Meanwhile, John L. Walmsley of North York, Ont., informs us that there also can be double cousins. "If two sisters marry two brothers, their offspring would not only be first cousins, but double cousins, as they would all share the same four grandparents."