Cousin relationships are reciprocal. i.e. Your relation to a cousin
is the same as their relation to you.

To determine the relation for a cousin older than you.
- Go back up your tree to an ancestor (G G ... Grandparent) in the same generation.
- The relationship between the person and your ancestor determines level (1st, 2nd, ..) of cousin.
- The number of steps back up to your ancestor is the number of times removed.
See example below.

Other (technically incorrect) uses of Cousin-
1) sometimes used to indicate a relationship by marriage rather than blood;
2) in early New England it can mean a niece or nephew;
3) sometimes used to refer to a close friend;
4) used to refer to someone who is kin, but the exact relationship is unknown.
5) Used as a title by a sovereign in addressing a nobleman.

While the definition alludes to friendship and marriage as definitions
for the word cousin, these definitions are intended to alert you so that you
do not make any misconceptions when it comes to reading that term in old
documents and letters. When dealing with present-day relationships, a cousin
is a blood relation of some sort.

Great-Uncle/Aunt: A brother/sister to any of one's grandparents.

In-laws
In-laws only apply to brother, sister, and parents.
e.g. There is no relationship between you and your spouses cousins. My sister-in-law could be:

1. the sister of my spouse, or
2. the wife of my brother, or
3. the wife of my spouse's brother. (This meaning is accepted by The American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, but not by all authorities.)

However Aunt, Uncle, Niece and Nephew can apply to your spouses relatives also.
- UNCLE: Uncle in American society this term can refer to a man in four different relative positions: father's brother; mother's brother; father's sister's husband; mother's sister's husband.
- NEPHEW - NIECE: Nephew or Niece is one who is the child of a sibling (or a half-sibling, or step-sibling, or a child of a spouse's sibling, or your spouse's spouse's sibling. Since the term derives from the Latin term, "nepos" meaning grandson, it is possible an early colonial reference may have this meaning.

Step and Half Relataionships
These terms apply when parents remarry. Sometimes they are used interchangeably, but they have distinct and well-defined meanings. The key distinction is that half siblings have one parent in common but not both; stepsiblings have no parents in common.

    1 John FINLEY  (b. 8 JUN 1579  (b.lchrystie, Scot.; d: 1670)
        2 James FINLEY  (b. 9 SEP 1631 Inchervie, Fife, Scot.; d: 16 FEB 1681 Inchervie, Fife)
         |   3 Alexander FINLEY  (b. 30 JUL 1667 Inchervie, St. Andrew's, Fife, Scot. d: 28 JAN 1736 Dublin Ire)
         |      4 James Finley  (b. 1687/8, Dublin, Ireland; d. 1753 Green Twp., Cmbr Co., PA)
         |           5 William Finley   (b. 1712, Dublin, Ireland; d. 1789 Augusta Co., VA)
         |             6 John Finley  (b. 15 Dec 1737 in Augusta Co,VA; d.  (b.f 25 OCT 1802 in Augusta Co,VA)
         |                7 James Finley  (b. 1783, Staunton, Augusta Co., VA; d. 1866, Lincoln Co., MO)
         |                   8 Andrew Ramsey Finley  (b. 1818, Shelbyville, KY; d. 1896, Santa Ana, CA)
         |                      9 Martha Emma Finley  (b. 1856, Troy, MO; d. 1947, Santa Ana, CA)
         |                          (Emma is Generation 6 in my table working back from the current generation)
        2 Robert FINLEY  (b. 1634 Incharvie,Fife, Scot.; d: 18 JUN 1712 in Armagh County, Ire)
            3  Michael FINLEY  (b. 7 MAY 1683  Co. Armagh, Ire; d. 1747 Sadsbury Twp., Chester Co., PA)
               4 Rev. Samuel FINLEY  (b. 2 Jul 1715 in Armaugh Co., Ire; d. 17 Jul 1766 in Philadelphia, PA)
                     [Was 5th president of The College of New Jersey  (now Princeton U.) 1761-1766]
                   5 Rebecca  (b. 1745 Nottingham, Cecil, MD; d. 1770 Monmouth NJ)
                     +Samuel Breese  (b. 1737 in Shrewsbury, Monmouth, NJ; 1802 in Shrewsbury, NJ)
                      6  Elizabeth Ann Breese (b. 1766 New York, NY; d. 1828 New Haven, CT)
                          + Rev. Jedidiah Morse  (b. 1761 Woodstock, CT; d. 1826/28  New Haven, CT)
                         7  Samuel Finley Breese Morse  (b. 1791 Charlestown, MA ;d. 1872 New York City)
                                   Invented the Telegraph
               4 Rev. James FINLEY  (b.  4 Feb 1724 in Armaugh Co., Ire; d. 1795 Rehoboth Twp, PA)
                     [Original draft of Declaration of Independence was made in his Philadelphia home.]

To find the relation between 9. Martha and 7. Samuel Morse.
1. Find the person closest (7. Samuel) to the common ancestor (1. John in this case).
2. Determine the relationship between the person closest to the common ancestor (7. Samuel) and his cousin in the other branch (7. James). They are 5th cousins (5 levels down from 2. James and 2. Robert who are brothers).
3. Find how many generations there are between the person farthest from the common ancestor (9. Emma) and the cousins (e.g. 2 generations from cousins (level 7) and Martha (level 9)
So Samuel is Martha's 5th cousin twice removed.

1. Pick two people in your family and figure out which ancestor they have in common. For example, if you chose yourself and a cousin, you would have a grandparent in common.
2. Look at the top row of the chart and find the first person's relationship to the common ancestor.
3. Look at the far left column of the chart and find the second person's relationship to the common ancestor.
4. Determine where the row and column containing those two relationships meet.