Family Relationship Chart

A couple days ago I emailed my father to tell him that my cousin (on my Mom's side) just had a baby. He emailed me, "Uncle-once-removed?" I thought to myself, "hmmm, I thought it was second uncle..." So off I trudged through the internet jungle again, this time looking for a "relationship chart" or some such beast.

Well, Google told me that there were several charts, among them one from About.com and another one from an authoritative-sounding Genealogy.com. And of course there's the omnipresent Wikipedia version. All of these charts used the same terminology: I was that baby's "first cousin once removed". That's all fine and good, but here's the kicker: that baby is my "first cousin once removed" too! That, to me, is highly unsatisfying.

The current "cousin" charts, more than being only unintuitive, do not take into account either the direction of the generation level or the gender. Dictionaries, however, correctly define words such as grandaunt, grandnephew, and great (definition 8). Also, there exists in common usage the terminology displayed in the chart below, such as "second grandnephew" and "second great grandaunt". Although judging by the number of search results, you'll find that in the case of the name for younger generations a space is preferred, "second grand nephew", whereas it is not for older generations, "second great grand aunt".

Hopefully with this table codifying preferred terminology, the bland cousin charts will fall from favor and the leaders in disseminating these terms will choose more descriptive jargon.

If one person's →		Parent*	Grandparent	Great grandparent	Great great grandparent	Great great great grandparent
is the other person's ↓	then that other person is his/her ↘
Parent*		Brother/Sister	Uncle/Aunt	Granduncle/aunt	Great granduncle/aunt	Great great granduncle/aunt
Grandparent		Nephew/Niece	Cousin	Second uncle/aunt	Second granduncle/aunt	Second great granduncle/aunt
Great grandparent		Grandnephew/niece	Second nephew/niece	Second cousin	Third uncle/aunt	Third granduncle/aunt
Great great grandparent		Great grandnephew/niece	Second grandnephew/niece	Third nephew/niece	Third cousin	Fourth uncle/aunt
Great great great grandparent		Great great grandnephew/niece	Second great grandnephew/niece	Third grandnephew/niece	Fourth nephew/niece	Fourth cousin

*In the Parent row there is also the possibility of having a direct ancestor, e.g. father/mother, grandfather/mother, great grandfather/mother, etc.
*In the Parent column there is also the possibility of having a direct descendant, e.g. son/daughter, grandson/daughter, great grandson/daughter, etc.