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We searched for "cousins" on Yahoo! and found a category in the directory called Cousin Marriage that seemed remotely relevant (under Society and Culture > Relationships). We clicked to see if any of the sites catalogued there could answer your question. We clicked on Cross Cousin Marriage and scrolled to the bottom of the page, where we learned that the page was in fact a chapter from a larger site called Kinship and Social Organization. Scanning the main menu, we located an appendix of frequently asked questions, including a section
called "Determining Degrees of Cousinship." We clicked on the "cousin reference diagram." Here we learned that degrees of removal refer to generational differences between cousins: your father's first cousin is your first cousin once removed; whereas your father's first cousin's children are your second cousins. Anthropologists use the term "collateral degree calculation." Take a deep breath now -- collateral degree is defined as the lesser of the number of links that each of two relatives traces to his/her most recent common ancestor. It's a basic genealogical concept. Aha! The mention of genealogy reminded us that we could look for cousin definitions under Yahoo!'s Genealogy Reference category. This lead us to a page called Cyndi's List: Cousins and Kinship, which in turn led to some clear and useful definitions from a handy little essay called "What Is a First Cousin, Twice Removed?".
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