Cousin chart: Encyclopedia II - Cousin chart - Half cousins and double cousins

Cousin chart - Half cousins and double cousins

It should be noted that the above chart is inadequate to explain the relationships which result when two people are both descended from a single common ancestor, but each from a different partner of that common ancestor. Half-siblings are a familiar concept to most people. But it can also be extrapolated out in the same manner as other cousin relationships. For example, if one of John's parents and one of Mary's parents are half-siblings, then John and Mary are half-cousins. The half sibling of each of their respective parents would be their half-aunt or half-uncle.

It is also of note that two people can be related in more than one way. For example, if John and Mary are a couple, and John's brother Jake and Mary's sister Melinda are also a couple, then the children of the two respective unions would be double cousins. Jake and Melinda would be the double uncle and double aunt, respectively, to John and Mary's children. Note that no incest has occurred in this scenario to create these unusual and close kinships. If Mary and Melinda are identical twins and John and Jake are identical twins, the double cousins would be genetically indistinguishable from biological siblings.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Half cousins and double cousins", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki