Don’t ask how this conversation came up, but last week at work I was in a meeting talking about a project that I am trying to get done and someone brought up the concept of “Twice Removed”. We spent quite a few minutes trying to figure out what it meant.
I like Anna’s explanation best; It is when a woman marries someone and eventually gets divorced and then she marries the brother of the previous husband and again, gets divorced. That way she was “Twice Removed” from the family!
While I like the explanation, I doubted the authenticity. So, did a quick search and found the answer at geneology.com.
When the word “removed” is used to describe a relationship, it indicates that the two people are from different generations. You and your first cousins are in the same generation (two generations younger than your grandparents), so the word “removed” is not used to describe your relationship.The words “once removed” mean that there is a difference of one generation. For example, your mother’s first cousin is your first cousin, once removed. This is because your mother’s first cousin is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. This one-generation difference equals “once removed.”Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. You are two generations younger than a first cousin of your grandmother, so you and your grandmother’s first cousin are first cousins, twice removed.