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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: mlrfn448 on Sunday 04 August 24 14:31 BST (UK)

Title: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: mlrfn448 on Sunday 04 August 24 14:31 BST (UK)
My son has undertaken a DNA search with 23andme, and in the results tree, it has described some name matches as 'Half 2nd Cousin, once removed'.
It is higher than my cousin's daughter (whose name I have recognised), who is described as 'Half 3rd Cousin'.
I really do not understand the 'half' bit.
I realise that these things are not entirely exact, but it would help to know how far back I need to check in my family tree.
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: Gadget on Sunday 04 August 24 14:56 BST (UK)
I'd look at the shared cMs rather than the website's relationship estimate. Then use the following to see what the possible relationships are:

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

Gadget
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: mlrfn448 on Sunday 04 August 24 15:25 BST (UK)
I can't find where it gives that on 23andme, tho ancestry has it, but their name matches are different, and they did not give any 'half' stuff.
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: familydar on Sunday 04 August 24 15:59 BST (UK)
Half means just one half of a couple is shared.  For instance if your grandfather married twice and had children by both wives, and those children went on to have children themselves, his grandchildren through his first wife would be half first cousins to his grandchildren through his second wife.  The once removed bit is to do with generational difference.

Jane :-)
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: Biggles50 on Sunday 04 August 24 17:48 BST (UK)
A Second Cousin will share a pair of Great Grandparents with you.

A Half Second Cousin will share One Great Grandparent.

A 2C1R would be a child of your Second Cousin.

Do note that what these websites offer is a prediction, not necessarily a factual relationship.
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: mlrfn448 on Tuesday 06 August 24 12:31 BST (UK)
Many Thanks for your replies.
of course, I knew what a half sibling is, but had never previously thought it woud apply to other ancestors.
But I realise it is a guess based on the number of shared cMs etc.
I am finding it very interesting.
The one name I recognised is my mother's sister's daughter's daughter (ie a 2nd cousin to my son, whose dna was tested, which came out at half 3rd cousin. The interesting thing though, are the names which came out higher, and which I do not recognise, so will have to work on finding out who they are, and how they are related.
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: Biggles50 on Tuesday 06 August 24 14:09 BST (UK)
Many Thanks for your replies.
of course, I knew what a half sibling is, but had never previously thought it woud apply to other ancestors.
But I realise it is a guess based on the number of shared cMs etc.
I am finding it very interesting.
The one name I recognised is my mother's sister's daughter's daughter (ie a 2nd cousin to my son, whose dna was tested, which came out at half 3rd cousin. The interesting thing though, are the names which came out higher, and which I do not recognise, so will have to work on finding out who they are, and how they are related.

You are right there, Ancestry’s predictions are based on the data that they have.

Every time we link a DNA match into our tree and then use the “Edit Relationship” feature, we give Ancestry the data to add to their database as to what cM actually relates to which Relationship.

Hence why we often get “2C1R to 3C” etc predictions.
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: Glen in Tinsel Kni on Tuesday 06 August 24 20:00 BST (UK)
Be grateful it's not a My Heritage prediction, by default they show full relationships which leads to the predictions being the wrong generation.  It is possible to see the half relationship options but they have to be selected manually.

I only have half relatives as both my parents are NPE cases and at least one grandparent is too. I have to go the extra step with every single match on MH and it's getting very tiresome. 
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: 4b2 on Wednesday 07 August 24 09:56 BST (UK)
I only have half relatives as both my parents are NPE cases and at least one grandparent is too. I have to go the extra step with every single match on MH and it's getting very tiresome.

Have you solved any of the cases?
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: Glen in Tinsel Kni on Wednesday 07 August 24 21:29 BST (UK)
One paternal NPE grandparent sorted. I have two groups of maternal matches, both around 50 people that trace back to showground families. the highest match is 277cM but it's an MH match with a grandfather who swapped and changed his name during his lifetime and their grt grandmother who was erm, somewhat friendly shall we say.
She had kids before, during and after her short marriage. Her hubby died in 1892, she registered an illegitimate daughter in 1897 and on the baptism record claims hubby was the father though deceased.  Several matches from that illegitimate daughter but it's a real car crash branch of multi marriages and co-habiting relationships.
Title: Re: What is a Half 2nd Cousin?
Post by: PaulineJ on Wednesday 07 August 24 21:29 BST (UK)
It may also be that the tree has allocated only one parent in a couple somewhere. Either in your tree , or someone else's. Thrulines on Ancestry can be very misleading