Question about family tree's?

Question:

Question about family tree's?

Ok so I was dating this guy. And I have a second cousin. And he says that it's his second cousin too. Does that make us anything? He says it does. Are we related. I've never seen him at a family gathering or anything. Never heard of him!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The only way to find out for sure is to trace back. It is possible you are not related at all. (Probable, since you never saw him at family gatherings.)

Suppose Mike McKinney and Marvin McKinney are brothers.

Mike marries Alice Jones.
They have a child, Albert McKinney.

Marvin marries Elizabeth Smith.
They have a son, Bruce McKinney.

Albert and Bruce are first cousins through the McKinneys, their dads.

Elizabeth, wife of Marvin, has a brother Edward Smith. He married Martha Mathis, and they have a child, Charles.

Bruce and Charles are first cousins through the Smiths.
Bruce and Albert, remember, are also first cousins.

Albert and Charles, both first cousins to Bruce, have no blood relation at all.

I used first cousins to keep things simple. When A, B and C have children, there will be second cousins all over the place, all related to Bruce's children, but again, Albert's children will have no relation to Charles' children.

You might want to get a big piece of paper and draw this out; it might be easier to understand with a picture.

I know a couple who met in Korea, when he was in the Air Force. She is Korean. She has brothers and sisters who married other Koreans. He is Iowan of Swedish extraction; he has brothers and sisters who married other Iowans. Their child is a beautiful medium-tall slender Eurasian. She has 1st cousins who are short, dark-haired Koreans and 1st cousins who are tall, blond corn-farming Iowans. Both sets of cousins are related to her, but her Korean cousins don't share a race, religion, continent or language with her Iowan cousins, let alone any blood relation.

If you have ancestors who lived in the USA west of the big cities before 1870, I'd be willing to bet several of them married a first or second cousin. It happened all the time. 24 states today have laws against marrying a first cousin. The other 26 don't. Very few foreign countries have alwws against it. No state and no country has a law against marrying a second, third, fourth or removed cousin.

Romancing a cousin does have some drawbacks; if the boy decides to set the county speed record for getting a bra off on the first date, or is otherwise a cad, there will be some long, ugly pauses if he shows up at a family reunion.