Relationships
Have you ever wondered what relationship a distant relative was to you? Well, here’s where you can find out if they are a second cousin twice removed. All relationships shown are from the point of view of ‘Self’. Each pair of rows represents a generation, up or down from ‘Self’. Those in the same line as ‘Self’ are the same generation. This chart also shows the percentage of DNA shared with each relative. I hope this helps.

Example: If your shared ancestor, with another person, is your ‘great grandfather’ and that person is in your generation, they are your ‘second cousin’; their parent is your ‘first cousin once removed’ (i.e. your parent’s first cousin); their children will be your ‘second cousins once removed’.

great great great
/
grandparent
\
great great
3.125%
great great
/
grandparent
\
grand uncle/aunt
\
great
6.25%
great grand
3.125%
1st cousin
/
grandparent
\
uncle/aunt
\
3 removed
\
grandparent
12.5%
great uncle/
6.25%
1st cousin
1.563%
2nd cousin
/
25%
\
great aunt
\
2 removed
\
2 removed
\
parent
uncle/aunt
12.5%
1st cousin
3.125%
2nd cousin
0.781%
3rd cousin
/
50%
\
25%
\
1 removed
\
1 removed
\
1 removed
\
Self (100%)
brother/sister
1st cousin
6.25%
2nd cousin
1.563%
3rd cousin
0.3815%
4th cousin
|
50%
\
12.5%
\
3.125%
\
0.781%
\
0.19075%
son/daughter
nephew/niece
1st cousin
2nd cousin
3rd cousin
50%
25%
\
1 removed
\
1 removed
\
1 removed
\
|
  \
6.25%
  \
1.563%
  \
0.3815%
  \
grandson/
grand nephew
1st cousin
2nd cousin
3rd cousin
granddaughter
/grand niece
2 removed
2 removed
2 removed
25%
12.5%
3.125%
0.781%
0.19075%






















There are 65,535 direct-line ancestors in just 16 generations including yourself!

1st generation: 1 (you)
2nd generation: 2 (parents)
3rd generation: 4 (grandparents)
4th generation: 8 (1x great grandparents)
5th generation: 16 (2x great grandparents)
6th generation: 32 (3x great grandparents)
7th generation: 64 (4x great grandparents)
8th generation: 128 (5x great grandparents)
9th generation: 256 (6x great grandparents)
10th generation: 512 (7x great grandparents)
11th generation: 1,024 (7x great grandparents)
12th generation: 2,048 (9x great grandparents)
13th generation: 4,096 (10x great grandparents)
14th generation: 8,192 (11x great grandparents)
15th generation: 16,384 (12x great grandparents)
16th generation: 32,768 (13x great grandparents) taking you back about 500 years

33 generations would take you back about 1,000 years
66 generations would take you back about 2,000 years
330 generations would take you back about 10,000 years
3,300 generations would take you back about 100,000 years, about the time when homo sapiens first left Africa
5,610 generations would take you back about 170,000 years, about the time when homo sapiens first extisted in Africa

It makes you realise how little you are likely to inherit from any single ancestor. People who can claim descent from someone very famous 200 years ago are unlikely to have much of that person's DNA in them, if any, unless that person is their direct paternal ancestor, whose Y-Chromosome would have been passed on.

It is an interesting fact that if you sampled the Mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA - the direct female line), of any two male 'silver-back' gorillas living within 20 miles of each other in a West African jungle, their DNA would be more different than any two human beings on this planet; even though the gorillas look alike and we don't. This is because we are a far younger species and have had much less time for our DNA to change. It is a sobering thought, when you see racial hatred in this small world, even between people who look very similar, let alone those whose appearance differs quite dramatically.

We need to remember that all humans share 99.9% of our DNA; it is just that one-tenth of 1% that makes us different.