📊 Family Relationship Chart Reference
A quick-reference chart showing how cousin relationships and removals are determined based on each person's generational distance from a shared common ancestor.
How to read the grid
Pick the row for how many generations one person stands below the shared ancestor and the column for the other, counting a child of that ancestor as Gen 1. The cell where they cross is the relationship, built from the same two rules a genealogist uses on paper:
cousin degree = min(row, column) - 1
times removed = |row - column|Row Gen 3 against column Gen 5 gives degree 2 and removal 2, printed as "2nd Cousin (R2)" — second cousins twice removed. The chart is symmetric about its diagonal, so Gen 5 against Gen 3 lands on the same label; the notation never says which of the two is the elder.
The two notations in the cells
- R is the removal count. R1 is once removed, R2 twice, R3 three times. A cell with no R means both people sit the same number of generations from the ancestor.
- The Gen 1 row and column are not cousins at all. They run down the aunt and uncle line, marked Aunt/Uncle with (x2), (x3) and so on. The number of "greats" is one less than that figure: (x2) is a great-aunt, (x3) a great-great-aunt.
- The diagonal is the cousin ladder — siblings, first, second, third, fourth, fifth cousins — and each step down it adds one generation to both sides at once.
Frequently asked questions
What does R1 mean on a cousin chart?
Once removed — a one-generation gap between the two people. "1st Cousin (R1)" is a first cousin once removed, which is either your cousin's child or your parent's cousin.
Which generation number do I use for myself?
Count upward to the ancestor you and the other person both descend from, then back down. If you both descend from the same great-grandparents, you are Gen 3 and so are they, and the chart returns second cousins.
Does the chart cover step-relatives and in-laws?
No. Every cell assumes both people descend by blood from one common ancestor. Step and in-law ties carry no generational distance to measure, and half relationships share only one ancestor rather than a couple.