How to piece together the relationship puzzle

Connie Lenzen has written another genealogy article for The Columbian (Clark County, Washington), Genealogy Today: How to piece together the relationship puzzle that goes over how people are related, whether they are once or twice “removed” or half-cousins, etc. Many people hear these terms and don’t quite understand what they mean, because many genealogists just assume they know what they mean.

Excerpt from the article:

I received a phone call from a woman who asked how her grandmother’s half-brother and his descendants were related to her.

Someone told her that they were not because her grandmother and her half-brother did not have the same mother and father.

They are related, but there is a “half” relationship.

“Half” relationships exist between people who have a common ancestor but descend from different spouses of that ancestor.

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