Can anybody help me work out the relationship....?

Question:Between some ancestors please? Grizel's gt.gt.g'father Archie is brother to Thomas. Thomas's gt.g'son is Archibald 2. What is the relationship between Grizel and Archibald 2? Are they cousins? Second cousins? Second cousins twice removed? Many thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Between some ancestors please? Grizel's gt.gt.g'father Archie is brother to Thomas. Thomas's gt.g'son is Archibald 2. What is the relationship between Grizel and Archibald 2? Are they cousins? Second cousins? Second cousins twice removed? Many thanks.

It all comes down to their common ancestor, which in this case would be Grizel's great great great grandparents and Archibald's great great grandparents. This would make them third cousins once removed.

When posing a relationship question, it is ALWAYS best to state who their common ancestor rather than saying that her gr gr grandfather and his gr grandfather were brothers. Once you find the common ancestor, you can take a look at this handy dandy relationship chart.

http://genealogy.about.com/library/nrela...

The instructions for its use are on the bottom of the page when you scroll down. I hope this helps! Take care.

I believe the answer you are looking for is second cousins.

though Grizel is from the family's third generation whereas Archibald the second is from the family's second generation.

I think it's actually third cousins once removed.

The way I understand it is like this:
First cousins: share a grandparent
Second cousins: the next generation down, share a great-grandparent
and so on.
The "removed" comes from being in different generations. For example, your first cousin's children are your first cousins once removed, but your children's second cousins. Your cousin's grandchildren are your first cousins twice removed, but your grandchildren's third cousins.

Hope this makes sense.

Edit: Btw - Genevievesmum - I don't think all our answers were that disparate, only one person said anything other than third cousins once removed.

Here's how you figure it out. You find the COMMON ANCESTOR linking the two people. In this case, the common ancestor is the parents of Archie and Thomas, or Archie's 3rd Great Grandparents.

Find out how many generations separate EACH person from that common ancestor.

For Grizel, four generations separate him from his 3rd Great Grandparents (parents, grandparents, great grandparents, 2nd great grandparents).

For Archie2, it is only 3 generations (Thomas' grandson, Thomas' son, and Thomas).

The COUSIN number is the number of generations separating the CLOSEST person to the common relative. In this case, Archie2 is closest with only 3 generations separating him.

SO Archie2 and Grizel are THIRD cousins.

The removed number is the DIFFERENCE in the separations of the two people. In this case, Grizel is 4 generations separated and Archie2 is 3 generations so 4-3 = 1 or once removed.

So Archie and Grizel are Third cousins once removed.

BTW, if Archie2 had a son, that son would be Grizel's 4th cousin because both he and Grizel would be 4 generations separated from the common ancestor and the removed number is 4-4=0. So just 4th cousins.

OK, let's peel this back and make sure we're on the same page. When you're getting this many disparate answers, it has to be a matter of interpretation of what people are reading.

When we determine a relationship between two people, we find the one couple from which both lines descend. Brothers are the sons of their common parents, so it's their parents from whom we work forward. In this case, it's 6 generations back for Archie and Grizel and 5 generations for Thomas to Archibald 2. When we count, we start with the person him/herself as Generation #1, so that's Grizel.

GGGGrandparents
GGGrandparents - brothers
GGrandparents - 1st cousins
Grandparents - 2nd cousins
Grizel's Parent/Archibald II - 3rd cousins
Child - Grizel

So since the last parallel generation is 3rd cousins and you have one left over, you have 3rd cousins once removed.