To think a 3rd cousin isn't really a relative?

[CallMeNutribullet]

Not really a Royal family thread but inspired by some of the conversations I've seen online since the Queen's death.

I've seen lots of people suggesting the fact that the Queen and Prince Philip were 3rd cousins is creepy and incestuous. To me it's such a distant relationship that I honestly wouldn't even consider myself related to a 3rd cousin. Google tells me you share less than 1% of your DNA with a 3rd cousin and I can't imagine the vast majority of people have any idea who their 3rd cousins are.

Would others see it as a deal breaker in a relationship if you found out a potential partner shared great, great grandparents with them?

Yes they share hardly any DNA but I'd still be creeped out by my grandchild dating my cousin's grandchild.

The reason I say this is that we get together for family meals etc with my 1st cousins. We are all young and I'm the 1st to have a child. Once other cousins do the same, the gathering will include 2nd cousins. As we get older, it's possible that me and my 1st cousins could be at the family table, with the 2nd cousins, and then the 3rd cousins.

1st cousins share a grandparent
2nd cousins are the relation of the children of 1st cousins. They share a great grandparent.
3rs cousins are the relation between the children of 2nd cousins. So 1st cousins grandchildren (to each other). They share a great great grandparent.

My cousin's grandchild would be my 1st cousin twice removed, but would my grabdchild's 3rs cousin. They would be my daughter's 2nd cousin once removed.

I would find it weird if I had a grandchild and they married my cousin’s grandchild. I think that is still quite a close relative really.

Your grandchild and your cousin's grandchild are third cousins.
It's creepy to me. I just could never encourage it or see it happening in my family.

I have over 60 first cousins, christ knows how many 2nd and 3rd cousins I have. I'm 51 years old, I've only met a very small percentage of the first cousins due to the sheer amount of my mum and dad's siblings.

Just for Context it's like Zara Philip's (Tindall) granddaughter marrying Prince William's grandson . . . far too close. i.e. Mia Tindall's child marrying Prince George's child.

Farmerazza I think it's one more generation away - great grandchild, not grandchild.

It's an incredibly tenuous connection, less than 1% DNA, the royal family know about these connections because the family tree is mapped in detail. Most people have no clue who their 3rd cousins are (I wouldn't even know my second cousins if I tripped over them).

My great grandparents were 1st cousins from the same tiny village. I don't think my mum knew about it. I certainly wouldn't consider 3rd cousins to be incestuous.

Agree, great grandchildren of Mia and Prince George. Very distant.

Most people will not know their third cousins. As I said upthread. my g grandfather was born in 1876 as one of 11 children. His oldest sibling was born in 1855. Out of the 11 siblings, there were at least 60 children - many families had 9 or more children. So my own grandad had 60 cousins - or more as I wasn't able to trace them all. There will be hundreds of descendants of that one couple living in the Scottish borders in the 1850s.

It's Mia and George's children who will be 3rd cousins.
Zara and William are 1st cousins
Mia and George are 2nd cousins
Their children will be 3rd cousins

@KassandraOfSparta , Mia and George are 2nd cousins. It's their children who would be 3rd cousins.

Far too close!

People can be so funny about these kinds of things. Obviously they're a "relative" in the strictest sense of the word, but they're not a close relative. If you go back far enough, we're all related. I certainly wouldn't have any concerns about 3rd cousins marrying.

If I have ever met any of my third cousins, I haven’t been aware of the relationship, they were just random people.

In what way? As said previously on the thread 3rd cousins share 0.8% of their DNA. We don't know if Mia and George's children will know each other.

They will - given it's the RF and the cousins are actually close now. In my family we would know each other and meet at family gatherings - there just isn't a situation where that would ever be normal. I also couldn't marry my Aunt's step son for instance - no DNA there but still my cousin. You have to draw the line somewhere - there are 7 Billion people in the world - nobody has to marry their relatives.

They shared great great grandparents (queen Victoria and Albert)
I wouldn't cal that close

So... I came from 16 great great grandparents. Another person has their 16. If that person is my 3rd cousin, we share one.
I understand that people generally don't marry whoever they are brought up with, no matter the blood relationship, so I can imagine someone won't marry one (set of) 3rs cousins because they are close, but no one knows well descendants from all 16 of GGGPs.

Correct

well in my family I’m very close to my 2nd cousins especially my 2nd cousins as they are in the same generation as me. they are all just seen as cousins to me. However I have met one or two of my 3rd/4th cousins. I’m not close to them but there is no way I would ever get with them romanticallyy family wouldn’t be ok with that. I do think it’s a cultural thing however.

whenever I find out I’m in any way related to someone I have romantic interest at all. I do think a reason for this however is due to the fact my great grand mother lived for so long so it somewhat connected all of us together. I would love to know how people would feel if let’s say Prince George married one of Prince Edwards the Duke of Kent’s grandchildren. Would everyone think it’s not weird or does it seem more like “keeping it in the family”.

what if they have the same surename as you and aren3rd cousins it really is all down to the circumstances.

Mine are on my DNA match in Ancestry. I definitely won't be marrying any of them!

@Farmerazza I think the reason we find it so strange is because we see them together so often. They have been raised from birth that they are relatives. There are some people who don’t know any of their 3rd, 2nd some even 1st cousins.

There was a boy in my class at school who I later met at a 21st birthday party and we discovered we shared great grandparents….

If you picked a random person out of a line up of the same ethnicity and colouring as you, you would share about the same amount of DNA as you do with a third cousin.

I am close to my cousins and will at some point have their children over and probably grandchildren. Our grandchildren cannot get married.