Daily AncestorGreat-great-grandfather
A great-great-grandfather is the father of one of your great-grandparents, also written as a 2nd great-grandfather.
A great-great-grandfather is four generations above you. You have sixteen great-great-grandparents.
Genealogists often swap the repeated greats for an ordinal number: great-great-grandfather is the 2nd great-grandfather, and great-great-great-grandfather is the 3rd great-grandfather. The number is always the count of greats. Two people who both have the same great-great-grandfather, with no closer shared ancestor, are third cousins.
As seen in a recordApplication to a hereditary society, 1900s
Capt. Zadok Pettengill, my great-great-grandfather, who served in the Revolution
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Daily Ancestor. "Great-great-grandfather." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/relationships/great-great-grandfather. Last checked 2026-10-12.