Something that often comes up at family gatherings is how you are related to people. That son of your great uncle what is he to you? You know he is your cousin, but beyond that you are not sure.
Figuring out cousin relatedness is pretty straight forward. If two siblings have kids those kids, say Bob and John, are first cousins. If Bob has a kid, then that kid is John’s first cousin once removed. If Bob and John both have kids those kids to each other are second cousins.
The way it works is that a second cousin is a first cousin once removed twice. You can think of once removed as a half. So the son of a second cousin would be a second cousin once removed and the grandson of a second cousin would be a second cousin twice removed which is a third cousin.
If you are using a family tree to better understand how related you are to someone, count the steps on the family tree. If you are two steps, you are siblings. If you are four steps away, you are cousins; five steps away, you are cousins once removed. If you are six steps away you are second cousins.
So while you are enjoying the holidays with your extended family you can figure out your exact relation to cousin Larry. Another option would be to ignore all of this and just enjoy the eggnog.