One of the aspects of family history that confuses many, whether new to genealogy or even the more experienced, is the array of terms used to describe the relationships between family members across generations. Descriptions such as “third cousin”, and “first cousin twice removed” are common, at least in English-speaking countries. But many people are unsure of their exact meaning.

The internet is full of calculators, charts, and blogs describing these. Many are good, but many are over-complex and confusing. Just typing “family relationship chart” into Google gets 176 million results! But still, people are confused or use the phrases incorrectly.

So I thought I would add the 176,000,001st and hope this helps kiwitrees users specifically. 

Below is my version of a “family relationship chart” to, hopefully, show how you relate to your aunts, uncles, and cousins.

There are other aids linked to the same purpose within kiwitrees, that may be displayed if appropriately enabled. Here are a some of them:

• Main menu > Lists > Calendar utilities > Calculators tab > Relationship calculator. This simple tool will help you find the description of your relationship to almost any family member who shares a common ancestor.
• Main menu > Charts > Relationship. See graphically the connection, and description, of the relationship between any two people in your family tree.
• Individual record pages, below the header containing name details you may see a description of the relationship between that person and you, or the default “root person” of the tree.
• Individual record pages > Cousins tab. This displays a list of all your (recorded) first cousins. From kiwitrees v.3.3.5 this also includes an option to switch to a display of second cousins.