AIBU?
Kate Middleton's distant relatives
Hammy02 · 18/04/2011 12:58
Did anyone see the woman on BBC Breadfast this morning. She shares the same Great Grandmother as Kate and this made the news?! That is one hell of a tenuous link. She seemed to be taking it seriously! How funny.
dilbertina · 18/04/2011 13:13
It's not all that distant though, one of her parents first cousin's children? My extended family is not particularly close but I would not regard my 1st Cousins child as massively removed from my own.
Despite this however I have zero interest however tenuous or not the family link!
Hammy02 · 18/04/2011 13:20
I think it is a hell of a tenuous link. I couldn't tell you who my parent's first cousin's child was and if it happened to be royalty it would make zero difference to me or my life. I don't think the woman had even met Kate and she said she wasn't invited to the wedding. I suppose someone somewhere was bored enough to go to the far end of a fart on Kate's family tree but to make a TV programme about it seems a bit OTT.
GwendolineMaryLacey · 18/04/2011 13:29
Myself and my first cousin consider our children cousins. They are similar ages, play together lots etc. As far as the children are concerned, they are cousins. How tenuous it is depends on your family dynamics. In our case it's not tenuous at all.
Bue · 18/04/2011 13:32
It depends on your family dynamics. I know almost all the children of my mother's first cousins. I see some of them several times a year. Heck, I know many of my grandparents' first cousins and their families and see some of them multiple times a year! VERY handy for travelling :)
DH on the other hand, can barely name some of his first cousins.
TandB · 18/04/2011 15:09
DP and I had this discussion this morning. He has a very close family - grandparents, their 5 surviving children, 14 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren all in one place at least twice a year and all in regular contact - and yet he has no idea who his second-cousins are and didn't think it weird that Kate Middleton doesn't know these people.
My family - all over the place, some barely see each other from one year to the next - and I can name every one of my second cousins and their children. I found it very odd that someone wouldn't know they were related to a second-cousin.
LoopyLiz88 · 18/04/2011 15:37
Depends on the family I suppose. I see 5th cousins on a regular basis and am godmother to one of their children. DH barely sees hs first cousins much less any other cousins. He once went with me to a childhood friend's husband's funeral and THEN realized the guy was his 2nd cousin.
confuddledDOTcom · 18/04/2011 15:52
That would be her second cousin.
Cousins share grandparents, second great-grandparents, third great-great-grandparents etc. Removed is the children/ grandchildren of a first/ second/ whatever cousin.
Of course they'll pull out as many people as they can, they want as much mileage as they can get.
In my family it's quite distant but I can imagine that anyone descended from my parents will be close because of how our family is. It's all relative (no pun intended).
SummerRain · 18/04/2011 16:54
I'm well aquainted with many of my 2nd and 3rd cousins. I've been to their weddings and played with them as children.
And my first cousins children are similar ages to mine and as mine have no 1st cousins they're the only cousins they know.
Wouldn't call it a tenuous link at all. I'm a third cousin to some extremely well known, wealthy people in this country and whenever they're in the news my mother will ring and say 'Did you see your cousins in the paper?' 
PiousPrat · 18/04/2011 17:03
GML it is the other way round for me. DP can name all his various relations, their occupations and that of their offspring and I am hard pushed to remember my aunts and uncles unless I put real effort into it, much less their kids and grandkids. That might be because of a different family dynamic, his lot are very much the traditional northern family which all meet up regularly and are involved in each others lives, plus there isn't that many of them. My dad was one of 8, all of whom had at least 2 children each and most of those have 2 or more each so there are far more to keep track of and we have always been a 'weddings and funerals' type of family when it comes to gatherings. Since most of the cousins that intend to marry have already done so and their kids aren't old enough yet, and fortunately no one has died lately, I think it has been about 8 years since we were all together.
I wouldn't say that second cousin was that much of a distant relation when it comes to marrying royalty though. My family have a tenuous link to a celeb couple and that often gets brought up at our rare gatherings 
glastocat · 18/04/2011 18:27
I have 40+ first cousins (exact number depends on which of my uncles' legitimate and illegitimate children are counted) most of whom I would recognise if I ran over them. None of them were at my wedding, let alone 2nd or 3rd cousins! I doubt Westminster Abbey would be big enough!
SummerRain · 19/04/2011 10:58
a friend of mine in school started dating a guy we knew. They had the same surname so there were lots of jokes along the 'you could be cousins' line. Turned out they were 2nd cousins. Which was a bit tragic really as they had a 4 year relationship but it all fell apart and one of the main factors was the fact that having children would have been incredibly dangerous for them (more risk of genetic problems than if they'd been first cousins apparently)
confuddled, it's easier of you think of it as our grandmothers being 1st cousins!
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