How well do you know your extended family?
By foxyfire33
@foxyfire33 (10005)
United States
March 8, 2007 2:34am CST
I was helping my daughter with a family tree project for school. She wanted me to name of all of MY cousins. Now, my mom had 8 siblings and my dad had 7. I think I have 32 cousins on my mom's side and 14 on my dad's (most of his only had 2 or 3 each, one doesn't have any). I started thinking about it and realized I don't even know the names of half of them. Granted my mom was the youngest of her siblings and was only 18 months old when her first niece was born so there's a pretty big age difference since I'm the youngest granddaughter on that side. Quite a few of my cousins have children older than me too. My dad's family was just never too close and I only know the few I went to school with and one other but only because he has the same name as our grandfather (kind of hard to forget that).
So what about all of you, can you name cousins and other extended family members or do you draw a blank on a lot of them like me?
4 responses
@songbirdnaimh (1422)
• United States
10 Mar 07
Interestingly enough, although my genealogy database has over 96,000 names I have no regular old first cousins. I have tons of first cousins once removed but my mother was an only child and my father has one sister who never had children.
I always wanted cousins, so now I keep "collecting" 6th, 7th and 8th cousins in the area. My family was mostly Mennonite and there are many people who live in this part of PA who are related to me.
1 person likes this
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
10 Mar 07
The first cousin once removed stuff always confused me. We call my parents nieces and nephews, my first cousins. My first cousins children are second cousins. Beyond that would be 3rd cousins I suppose. I'm not sure if this is the right way of thinking though.
Out of curiosity what would be the relationship here: If girl A's great uncle (grandfather's brother) is married to boy B's aunt (father's sister), what are they to each other (if anything). We've been debating this and you sounded like someone who understands these things.
Where roughly in PA are you? I'm guessing Lancaster area but could be completely wrong. I'm up in the northeastern corner.
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
11 Mar 07
LOL...I didn't think there was any relation but just wanted to check. It was really about my s/o and I but who wants to announce to the world they're dating their cousin or something lol.
It's funny, as close as I am, I've never been to New Jersey.
@songbirdnaimh (1422)
• United States
11 Mar 07
It's early, early morning for me so I'm not too coherent...lol....but I don't think there is any relation at all to girl A and boy B...
I live in Bucks county....about 30 minutes from Jersey, so you're close ;)
@ctv101103 (859)
• Philippines
8 Mar 07
yes i can =)
my dad has 8 siblings (9 including him). i can name all my aunts and uncles and their spouses, my cousins and their spouses, and even my cousins' children.
the same goes for my mom. she has 5 siblings (6 including her). i can name them all -- from my aunts/uncle and their spouses, my cousins and their spouse, and their children.
1 person likes this
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
8 Mar 07
That's wonderful!
I can name all of my mom's siblings, most of their spouses, some of their children, a few of those spouses, and a couple of the children. I know all my dad's siblings, two spouses, about half the cousins and the three spouses of the married ones I know. I can only think of the name of one of my cousin's children.
I don't know how you can keep track of that many people but it's a really good thing!
@horsesrule (1957)
• United States
8 Mar 07
I am sad to say that I don't know my cousins names and how many there even are of them on either side of my family. Dad moved to California, away from the rest of his family who is mostly in Texas and they aren't close. It's almost like dad's an only child! And the strange thing is, he had something like nine brothers and one sister! I know more about my mother's side of the family but they aren't close either so I never grew up with extended family. My poor daughter misses that, she never had extended family and she always wanted to be part of a large family. Poor baby, she's an only child since I just had her. But she fixed that, by golly, she had three children of her own! So now she's part of that large family, well, her and the three boys and me. Sometimes her dad comes to visit her and we have my mom and dad but the father of the three boys, he likes to pretend he doesn't exist. I don't believe he's ever seen the youngest boy except in pictures! I wish our family could be closer and not so distant from each other but this is the way its always been with our branch of the family.
1 person likes this
@AnnaB87 (761)
• United States
11 Mar 07
I wish I did know my extended family better in some ways but I don't.
The ones I do know well, sometimes I wish I did not know so well. LOL
But maybe one of these days I will know everyone better not really sure though.
Because I do not know all my family, and my whole family is scattered.
I think its good that many people do have close family and get along well.
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
11 Mar 07
There are definitely some family members I wish I was closer to. My mom had a bit of a falling out with some of her siblings so I wasn't able to be close to their children and/or grandchildren. These are the cousins (or 2nd cousins) that are closest in age to me. Unfortunately, grudges seem to be pretty common within the family so my own children aren't going to be close to their cousins either. It's my hope that at least mine will stay close and their children can grow up together.
