First cousins marrying each other. They were my Grandparents. What kin does that

Question:I have been tracing my family tree and came across this. I know, GROSS! Hey, we have no choice in picking our relatives.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have been tracing my family tree and came across this. I know, GROSS! Hey, we have no choice in picking our relatives.

Most of us with lines that go back to the sparsely-populated counties of the US (Basically anything west of the Atlantic seaboard) before about 1880 have lots of first cousins marrying each other. In some counties, if you wanted to marry a white woman within 10 years of your age, it was a cousin or nothing. Unless your family has hemophelia or something else rare and genetic, you'll be fine.

The people on Pitcarin Island intermarry constantly. In the USA, some small religious sects, like the Mennonites and Amish, marry their cousins on a regular basis.

Their kids would be children of first cousins, which makes them their own second cousins as well as siblings. You and the rest of their grandkids are your own third cousins.

I haven't a clue, but you would be some sort of cousin to them as well.

I fear for your genetic make-up, frankly.

Well, I'm not really sure, but I know that it makes your family a little closer than you'd probably like them to be. Good luck with the rest of your family tree.

You are your own 3rd cousin.
My daughter and husband are distant relatives.
My present husband and ex husband are 7th cousins.
Saves on data entry.

I'm not sure why it's 'gross,' since there's not really that much consanguinity. In fact, it's trivial compared to individuals such as the Windsors, where everyone who's a really eligable match is proabaly also related to one another in some degree, not infrequently as closely as your grandparents. For example, Britain's Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were first cousins.

Anyway, the answer is that you're 'grandchild'... to you. All this nonsense about being 'your own' cousin, nephew, etc. is just that: silliness. These terms are meant to show bloodline relationships, which you cannot have with yourself.

Where things may get interesting is what you are to *other* people in your family tree, especially four or five generations from now. Even then, though, the term this or that relative uses for you should be the one that refers to the closest connection. The rest only shows up on a genealogy chart.

Anyway, go back far enough and everybody has relatives like yours. The term for it is pedigree collapse, of which your grandparents have become a source in your family.

This type of thing happens all the time! The strangest thing is that your 2nd great-grandparents are your 2nd great-grandparents TWICE! But as far as your relationship to yourself from these two "cousins", look at the two lines going to a common ancestor (ignoring the common ancestors of your grandparents). The two lines are:

You1 - parents - grandparents - great-grandparents1 - 2nd great grandparents

You2 - parents grandparents - great-grandparents2 - 2nd great grandparents

Determine the number of generations separating each person from the common ancestor ---

You1 - 3 generations
You2 - 3 generations

The cousin number is the smallest of these numbers which is 3 so you are 3rd cousins to yourself.

The removed number is the difference between these numbers 3 - 3 = 0 (not "removed") so you are 3rd cousins with yourself.

If you trace backwards even further, it is highly probably that you will find numerous occurrences of such intersections of your ancestor tree. We all do.