People have asked me many times through the years, “how are they related to me?” This chart below is the best way I’ve found to explain it. You’ll see lots of different versions, but this is one that I found in a Reader’s Digest article a long while back. (I can’t properly site the where from at present, but if I find that info, I’ll update it here.)
The overall of the way to use this is to find ‘Self‘ (marked as “You are Here“), and work out from there. For example, if you look across the same row ‘Self‘ is on, another child of your parent is your sibling. A child of your “Aunt or Uncle” is your “1st cousin“. Your 1st cousin’s child is your “1st cousin once removed” (one generation removed from your 1st cousin). If you can make sense of those relationships, then everything else on the chart is just an extension of that same logic.
If this doesn’t make sense & you still have trouble sorting a relationship, shoot me an email or a message from the main site page & I’d be happy to help.