A Writing Journey with Unexpected Rewards: Finding New Family

When we began writing in 2021, we set out to share our family’s immigration story—documenting their struggles, faith, and perseverance as they settled in a new country. Our main intention was to leave our children and grandchildren a meaningful legacy.

As our writing progressed, we received many accolades and positive reviews from our readers. Our first novel, Katy: The Little Rose from Ukraine, earned us a nomination for the Prairie Pasque Award from the SD Library Association and brought us opportunities to meet other amazing authors across the state at numerous book festivals. These experiences enriched our journey and set the stage for further unexpected rewards.

While these honors have been deeply rewarding, another unexpected benefit emerged over the past three years: the discovery of new family members on our family tree. Growing up, we knew the basics of our genealogy—parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins—but hearing our father mention second cousins or first cousins once removed often left us confused. Through researching and writing the story of our great-grandfather’s six sisters, we uncovered cousins we never knew existed. This prompted a deeper dive into cousin designations, which, despite initial concerns about confusion, we soon found followed a logical pattern.

FIRST COUSINS

We have many first cousins, children of our father’s siblings. We didn’t call them “first” cousins, though we shared grandparents with them. We were lucky to grow up nearby, close in age and in the community, often gathering at Grandpa Dave and Grandma Lydia’s blue house on the corner.

SECOND COUSINS & BEYOND

Second cousins can also be in the same generation as first cousins, but they’re separated by one step. Rather than being the children of your parents’ siblings, they’re the children of your parents’ first cousins. So you and your second cousins share the same great-grandparents, but not the same grandparents.

The number associated with your cousin indicates how many generations separate your common ancestors. For example:

• First cousins share a grandparent (2 generations)

• Second cousins share a great-grandparent (3 generations)

• Third cousins share a great-great-grandparent (4 generations)

• Fourth cousins share a 3rd-great-grandparent (5 generations)

As the generations multiply, the number of possible cousins expands dramatically. By the time you reach fourth and fifth cousins, you may have hundreds — even thousands —  spread across regions or countries. That’s because your family tree grows exponentially: Each generation back doubles your number of ancestors, so you have 16 great-great-grandparents, 32 great-great-great-grandparents, and 64 great-great-great-great-grandparents, each potentially connecting you to many different family branches.

WHAT “ONCE REMOVED” MEANS

The other piece of cousin terminology that causes confusion is the word “removed,” which indicates the number of generations separating cousins. If someone is your cousin, “once removed,” that means they’re one generation above or below you. For example, your mother’s cousin is your first cousin once removed; “removed” marks that generational gap.

If the gap in question spans two generations, that cousin is “twice removed.” For example, your grandmother’s cousin is your cousin twice removed. In theory, the “removed” label can continue indefinitely — three times removed, four times removed, and so on.

No matter what the label, whether it’s first cousin or third cousin twice removed, that label marks your place on a family tree and shows how you and another person can trace your ancestry back to a shared ancestor. Since our great-grandfather had six sisters (our great-great-aunts), all their descendants are, in some way, our cousins.

From our calculations, these six sisters together had 35 children who lived to adulthood. According to the Christian Mueller & Anna (Schrag) Mueller Family Genealogy Booklet 1842 - 2002, these 35 children then had 79 more children between them. You can see how each generation more than doubles. We don’t have accurate, up-to-date records on the number of children from these 79 cousins, but it’s been rewarding to discover individuals from our childhood home community who are also descendants of Christian Mueller and thus one of our cousins, and we couldn’t be happier to share our family history with each and every one of them. Reach out and share your cousin stories. We'd love to hear from you; maybe you're one of our cousins!

This information comes from the article “Second Cousins or Once Removed? Untangling the Family Tree” from the newsletter on  interestingfacts.com and from https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/what-is-a-second-cousin “What Is a Second Cousin? - Cousin Relations Explained” by Jessica Grimaud. July 23, 2019