This intricate relationship is a second cousin

No one is allowed to consciously choose his parents and relatives. By the will of fate, a person comes into the world and immediately finds himself part of a chain of kinship ties. He may not even know about many of them. There have been cases when people, having lived to an advanced age in ignorance, suddenly learned that they have relatives, about which they have absolutely not heard anything before. And so, to mutual joy, a single person is declared a half-sister or son of a cousin with a large family, ready to share warmth and affinity with a new relative.

Family - these are the people who are supposed to if not love, then at least respect and appreciate. Close to us not thoughts and vital views, as friends, but by blood. Thanks to the preservation of family ties, one can hope that there is someone who is always ready to give you a helping hand in trouble.

Earlier in families it was customary to have many children. When they grew up, they acquired husbands and wives, then they settled near their parents' house. Often it turned out that entire villages were related kinship. And almost always everyone knew who is who and who. In which hut is the cousin, matchmaker, cousin or second cousin.

Now times are changing, with relatives not all are in touch. We know our close people - parents, sisters and brothers, grandparents and grandfathers. But when the relationship is more distant, many tend to be confused in its degrees. For example, how is your second cousin connected to you? Far from everyone can quickly orient and answer without thinking. To learn how to calculate family ties, one must have a well-developed memory. Of course, it's much easier to spy on somewhere than remember that it's the son of a cousin or uncle.

Counting will require more extensive knowledge. For example, a brother is the son of your parents. A cousin is a child of his uncle or aunt (ie brother or sister of one of your parents). And already the son of a cousin uncle or aunt will be just a second cousin. The same uncle and aunt will be cousins or sister of your father or mother.

Another example. To understand what kindred is the son of a cousin, it is worth remembering that every child of any of your brother or sister (even relatives, at least cousins, cousins, etc.) accounts for you nephew of the corresponding degree of kinship.

I admit, it's easier for me to get confused in such genealogical intricacies than to understand. It turns out that any old woman from an old village was more clever than me in matters of kinship. But there is nothing to be surprised at - my family is just one of those who hardly communicate with distant relatives. The desire for rapprochement has never been with us, nor with distant relatives. There is nothing to talk about celebrations with the whole family or grand jubilees, where "all yours". We do not have the old customs of familyhood, which I sometimes regret.

I know that I have a second cousin, although I have never seen him. Cousins and second cousins are also available. Is it not time to stop feeling sorry for lost time, and instead try to find relatives and establish communication?