When does someone stop being a relative?

[DitzyDoughnutt]

Is it after the second cousin and beyond ? Considering our DNA make up is inherited ,When would you say someone is not longer a relative?

I’ve so far confirmed matches through my Ancestry DNA test to 3rd cousins (we share great-great-grandparents). Other matches are showing as estimated 4th-6th cousins but my tree isn’t big enough to confirm those ones yet.

I know many second cousins' and their children and consider them relatives. I'd probably go to third cousin.

I know a few of my parents' cousins and their children, as well as many of my parents-in-laws cousins children.

My parents have about 60 cousins between them and there are approximately a further 50 cousins on my in laws side. Out of these, I have personally met about 30 of the cousins and about 30 of their children.

I feel that if I've met them and i know theyre related somehow (even if very distantly) they're a relative.

I feel that if I've met them and i know theyre related somehow (even if very distantly) they're a relative.

Same. My mother's second cousin once arrived at my great aunt's front door and announced herself as my 'cousin'. I was quite confused as I was a child and she was a middle-aged woman I had never seen before! I consider her family. My great grandmother's younger brother I met once too.

We inherit half of our dna from our parents so may not have any shared DNA with cousins from 3rd cousins downwards on either the maternal or paternal side . I once overheard my cousins kid say Ditzy calls me cousin but she isn't really my cousin !

But we do share dna with 3rd cousins. As I said above, my dna test has matched me to someone and I’ve traced her to be a third cousin. My grandma knows who she is, it’s her cousin’s granddaughter. So me and this 3rd cousin share great-great-grandparents.
Why would you say she’s not related to me? I’m sure if my great-great-grandparents were still alive, they’d be just as much connected to her as they are to me.

Beyond living memory, for practical terms.

I'm used to a different system of counting relations, but isn't a third cousin the grandchild of the cousin of your grandparent? I would say definitely a relation. Not necessarily one you know (well), but might know of. All depends on how much your grandparents kept in touch with their cousins.

If you have a common ancestor then you are related, however far back the tree goes.

The Human Genome Project says they reckon humans have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes. You have two sets of those, one set from each parent.

So how about this for genes inherited from your ancestors?

Your parent 20,000 genes
grandparent (GP) 10,000
GGP 5,000
GGGP 2,500
4xGP 1,250
5xGP 625
6xGP 312
7xGP 156
8xGP 78
9xGP 39
10xGP 20
11xGP 10
12xGP 5

That's a lot of generations. They estimate three generations per century, so that takes you back over 400 years.

You don't necessarily inherit an equal number of genes each time, it can vary considerably, but that gives you a ballpark idea.

In general for doing the tree I've taken the parents and children in each generation, up until my own grandparents where I'm tracing cousins (111 and counting...).

But for now, I'd maybe class 2nd cousin as the line, unless I know them personally or anything that you need to add once/twice removed ect after first cousin once removed!

I would say 3rd cousin would be as far as it goes surely the DNA is going to be nonexistent at some point ?

A cousins child is a first cousin once removed . Their offspring is a second cousin . Their offspring is then a third cousin, if you type the relationship into google it tells you how you are related .

I don’t think that’s quite right. The once-removed, twice-removed refers to the generational difference.
In your example, they’d be cousins once-removed, twice-removed and 3xremoved.

Second cousins are same generation, both the children of first cousins.

Third cousins go down a generation on both sides again, so they share 2x great-grandparents.

So what are your parents cousins children known as?

I know quite a few of those but not sure who they are to me lol!

Well I'm closer to my second cousins than my first cousins, and my kids know their kids (their third cousins) - so I wouldn't say we weren't related, but agree that genetically, it's quite a long distance:I wouldn't be totally freaked if one of my children decided they were going to "get it on" with one of those third cousins!

Your parents cousins children are your second cousins. You’re the same generation as them, both the children of first cousins. If they had children, they’d be your second cousins, once removed, to reflect the difference in generation.

The Queen and Prince Philip were 3rd cousins , their great grandparents were Albert and Victoria. Tbh in small towns and communities most people are distant cousins . It would be fine for the kids to marry beyond first cousins.

I think it's when you move to the United States of America and write a book about your family...

Ah ok thanks. So I know some of my 2nd cousins once removed then, but think that's the furthest out I know my relatives.

Late to the thread, I know, but I think it depends on how well you know them. My maternal grandmother was always very close to her cousins, and as a result I have always known them and their descendants, in some cases better than my first cousins.

My second cousin twice removed is a good friend as well as a relative, and at a recent family gathering he was photographed holding my sister's new great-grandchild. They are second cousins four times removed. Do we all consider ourselves relatives? Absolutely! I know I have other "second cousins four times removed" from my genealogy research but they are just names on a chart; I don't know them. Were I ever to meet them I would probably think of them as a distant relative but not feel a connection to them, not like the guy who I have known all my life.

@DignityAlwaysDignity

Yes I think if you know them personally then you have a connection. I know my cousins kids and their grandkids. I have second cousins on Ancestry but none have reached out to me and neither have I reached out to them. I have great aunts I've never met and numerous distant cousins.

We buy our Christmas tree each year from my 5th cousin. Worcestershire farming family so neither of us have moved far.