Spend even a little time in the world of genealogy and you will encounter removed used to describe the relationship between two cousins; for example:
- First Cousin Once Removed
- Fourth Cousin 4 Times (4x) Removed
The degree of the cousin relationship (e.g. First Cousin, Fourth Cousin in the examples above) is determined by the cousin that is closest in relationship to (fewest generations below) the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) of the two cousins.
The removal of the cousin relationship (e.g. Once Removed, 4 Times Removed in the examples above) is the number of generations the two cousins are apart. So, for example, if the closest cousin is 3 generations below the MRCA, and the other cousin is 4 generations below the MRCA, then they are Second Cousins Once Removed:
Closest cousin is 3 generations below the MCRA → Second Cousins
4 generations – 3 generations = 1 generation apart → Once Removed
Below is a handy and well-formatted table of consanguinity from Graham Chamberlain:
Look up the relationship of the first person to the MCRA in row 0. Look up the relationship of the second person to the MCRA in column 0. The relationship of these two cousins is then found at the intersection of the column for the first person and the row for the second person. For example:
Great-grandson to MCRA → Row 0, Column 3
2nd great-granddaughter to MCRA → Column 0, Row 4
Intersection at Column 3, Row 4 → Second Cousin Once Removed
You can learn even more about cousins from Wikipedia.