How many cousins do YOU have?

 

It’s been a different sort of year this year. You would be forgiven for thinking I had fallen off the face of the planet. But no, life just sort of took over and work pressures increased.

Covid is still here, wreaking havoc on people lives, but for the most part is just a nuisance. Gone are most of the restrictions, mask wearing, limited crowd numbers, no events, no travel etc., for the most part the world is getting back to where we were in early 2020. Albeit with hefty changes to the cost of living and chronic shortages in healthcare staffing globally.

Anyway, this week Dad asked me if I could update something for him. A spreadsheet where he keeps track of all his cousins and specifically whether the now quite small group has decreased further. It’s been a tricky year for Dad healthwise – but the family historian gene is strong in his DNA! (it's the same gene I've got) I was telling someone about this task and they asked how many cousins he had. I couldn’t think straight off, but then I remembered I had counted them all at one time and been astounded at the numbers- not just for Dad’s generation but for his parents as well.

So, just for interest’s sake here are the numbers of FIRST cousins:

Paternal grandmother: 100 (46 on her father’s side and 54 on her mother’s (these are just the legitimate ones, DNA has increased that number by 3-4 in the past six or so years)

Paternal grandfather: 30+ (10 on his father’s side and at least 20 (I haven’t had a lot of luck with my Irish research) on his mother’s side.

Dad: 36 (17 on his father’s side and 19 on his mother’s) Quite the change in one generation.

Maternal grandmother: 20 (17 on her father’s side and 3 on her mother’s)

Maternal grandfather: 30 (7 on his father’s side and 23 on his mother’s)

Mum: 13 (8 on her father’s side and 5 on her mother’s)

You can see why my mother often says that it doesn’t matter where they go in the country, there is always a cousin of Dad’s who lives there, or close by.

So anyway, I have done some searching and can update the list for Dad. His 36 cousins have become a group of 8, sadly losing three members in 2022, they range in age from 76 to 95 and are split evenly between both sides of his family.