Beara's Children: What do we mean by "first and second cousins" when we use that term?

Back last month we had a post about distinguishing degrees of kindred. Since then, I've learned that while the terms I provided in that post are the standard terms in use today in genealogical circles, they're not the terms our families and friends in Beara always use. Instead, there's a system of distinguishing cousins as x-and-y cousins, where the x and y values are as shown in this chart.

Beara (West Cork) Irish version of degrees of kindred

Common Ancestor	Child	Grandchild	Great Grandchild	2^nd Great-Grandchild	3^rd Great- Grandchild	4^th Great-Grandchild	5^th Great-Grandchild
Child	Sibling	N(iece or nephew)	Grand-N	2^nd Great Grand-N	3^rd GGN	4^th GGN	5^th GGN
Grandchild	N(iece or nephew)	1^st Cousin	1^st and 2^nd Cousin	1^st and 3^rd Cousin	1^st and 4^th Cousin	1^st and 5^th Cousin	1^st and 6^th Cousin
Great Grandchild	Grand-N	1^st and 2^nd Cousin	2^nd Cousin	2^nd and 3^rd Cousin	2^nd and 4^th Cousin	2^nd and 5^th Cousin	2^nd and 6^th Cousin
2^nd Great-Grandchild	2^nd GGN	1^st and 3^rd Cousin	2^nd and 3^rd Cousin	3^rd Cousin	3^rd and 4^th Cousin	3^rd and 5^th Cousin	3^rd and 6^th Cousin
3^rd Great-Grandchild	3^rd GGN	1^st and 4^th Cousin	2^nd and 4^th Cousin	3^rd and 4^th Cousin	4^th Cousin	4^th and 5^th Cousin	4^th and 6^th Cousin
4^th Great-Grandchild	4^th GGN	1^st and 5^th Cousin	2^nd and 5^th Cousin	3^rd and 5^th Cousin	4^th and 5^th Cousin	5^th Cousin	5^th and 6^th Cousin
5^th Great-Grandchild	5^th GGN	1^st and 6^th Cousin	2^nd and 6^th Cousin	3^rd and 6^th Cousin	4^th and 6^th Cousin	5^th and 6^th Cousin	6^th Cousin

My thanks to Ken Mason for making me aware of this alternate usage, and to Riobard O'Dwyer for explaining the details of how it works. Any errors in this chart are entirely my own.

Bill Gawne

Beara's Children

Friday, February 22, 2013

What do we mean by "first and second cousins" when we use that term?

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