From My Kitchen Window: Who Is In My Family Tree?

Genealogists use seemingly complicated terms for pinpointing family members, such as Fifth Cousin or 4th Cousin 3 Times Removed.

Have you ever wondered how to decipher for yourself how your family members are related to you? The Burleson Family provides a tidy chart for determining family relations:

If I put my Great Grandmother Dollie in box one, below her is her son Tony, and below Tony in box 3 is her granddaughter, Debbie. Across the top in box two is Dollie's daughter Grace, next is her grandson Bill and in box 4 is my name, Dollie's great-granddaughter. If you connect Debbie in box 3 across to my column 4, you will find that we are First Cousins Once Removed.

Another interesting chart has been provided by Anna Marie Lee, the Division President in TXDAR. This chart provides how many people are in a family tree.

My sixth generation ancestors served in the Civil War. From that generation, there are 32 people in my family tree descending directly to me.

My 13th generation ancestors served in the American Revolution. From that generation, there are 2048 people in my family tree descending directly to me.

If my family tree is traced back to Charlemagne in the year 750 AD, containing 41 generations, there are 2,199,023,255,552 people descending directly down to me (yes, that is 2 trillion, 199 billion, 23 million, etc.).

Genealogy is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. There is always another piece to fit, another fact to find and another name to add to the family tree. And delightfully so!