What is a fourth cousin?
Fourth cousins share a set of great-great-great-grandparents and are the same number of generations below them. Their parents are third cousins.
You both descend from the same great-great-great-grandparents, each of you 5 generations down.
An example
- Your parent's third cousin's child is your fourth cousin.
How to work it out
- Find the ancestors you share and count the generations from them down to each of you: 5 and 5.
- The smaller number minus one gives the cousin degree: 5 minus 1 is 4, so "fourth".
- The difference between the two numbers is how many times "removed": 5 minus 5 is 0, so not removed.