# How many first cousins do you have? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 13, 2004, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975 "2004-10-13T06:39:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/1 "2004-10-13T06:39:41Z")
We’ve been having a discussion in the office this afternoon about first cousins and, in particular, how many of them people have. One woman has over 30! So - how many first cousins do you have? By first cousins I mean the children of your parents’ brothers and sisters. Since both of my parents are only children, I have no uncles or aunts. So I’m right at the very bottom of the scale, with no first cousins at all. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/2 "2004-10-13T06:47:38Z")
4, and only one is genetically related to me. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/3 "2004-10-13T06:49:23Z")
I haven’t counted them up since the mid 90s, but it’s upwards of 40 and probably over 50 by now. One of my aunts has eight (might be more now) kids. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/4 "2004-10-13T06:50:55Z")
And my wife and I are both only children, so our kids ain’t gonna have any. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/5 "2004-10-13T06:54:23Z")
Got 8 full, and 2 half. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/6 "2004-10-13T06:55:38Z")
Hmmm, let’s see. I’ve got two that are blood kin, one on each side. Adding in Daddy’s step-siblings, I’ve got…two by the older step-sister, two by the younger step-sister, and two or three by the step-brother, who we never see. So I’ve got 8 or 9. ---
**Author:** ![hyperjes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@hyperjes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyperjes)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/7 "2004-10-13T06:56:43Z")
I have two biological first cousins. They are the children of my mother’s older brother and are much older than me. I also have four first cousins through adoption. They are the children of my adoptive father’s two brothers. One is older than me, one is the same age and two are younger. I do, however, have around 30 or 40 second and third cousins. They are pretty much all within a year or three of my age. School was fun. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/8 "2004-10-13T06:58:58Z")
I’m pretty sure it’s six. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Niceguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mr.Niceguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Niceguy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/9 "2004-10-13T07:05:41Z")
> [@](#): > > How many first cousins do you have? I’ve only had one so far but I’ve asked two more out for dinner. 😃 Actually 5. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/10 "2004-10-13T07:14:23Z")
Let’s see - on dad’s side, originally 19 (One family had 11 kids), of which four have died (illness). On Mom’s side seven, of which three have died (car acccident). So it was 26, now 19. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/11 "2004-10-13T07:18:58Z")
Two on my dad’s side, 6 on my mom’s, although four of those were adopted… Grim ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/12 "2004-10-13T07:51:34Z")
I only have three, all on my mother’s side. My mother, however has (or has had- many of them are dead now) at least 70; the oldest were grandparents when the youngest were born. The strange part is that all but one of her first cousins are on her father’s side. (He was from a family of 15, all of whom survived to adulthood and several of whom had large families themselves.) My grandfather had more than 100 first cousins because both of grandfathers and one of his grandmothers married more than once and had enormous families, giving him lots of half-aunts and half-uncles (several of them younger than he was). The issue of first-cousins became cloudy several times as well; since one of his grandfathers married two sisters (consecutively), his children were half-siblings and first-cousins to each other (also known as a 3/4 sibling). His other grandfather was married first to my g-g-grandmother and, when she died, he married her (half) aunt (who was much younger than her niece- a case of a very old father). This made his children from his second marriage the first cousins of his first wife. First cousinage in rural Alabama can get way more complicated than you’d ever imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/13 "2004-10-13T07:55:29Z")
About 40, only 6 or 7 of whom I would recognize by face and name on the street. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/14 "2004-10-13T07:59:03Z")
14 here. My Dad had 8 siblings. Thankfully they weren’t all as prolific as My Grandmother, or I’d have trouble remembering all the names! ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/15 "2004-10-13T08:19:49Z")
17 blood cousins. Dad has 4 brothers - 3 have 2 kids, 1 has 1 - mom has 3 sisters, 2 brothers - 2 have 3 kids, 2 have 2, the other doesn’t have any. Non-blood… My uncle’s wife has one from a previous relationship. My grandmother’s second husband has about a dozen grandkids. So ~30 if you count half-siblings to appropriate blood relatives - I’ve always considered them all my cousins. I don’t recognise most of my grandmother’s husband’s grandkids, though. (As evidenced by the fact I can’t remember how many he has. :p) I can name 4 (2 sets of siblings). All the blood relatives and my uncle’s adopted daughter I know, though. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/16 "2004-10-13T08:37:57Z")
12 on my mother’s side. 9 on my father’s side. So 21 in all. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/17 "2004-10-13T09:38:18Z")
6 on my dad’s side and…I _think_ 6 on my mom’s side. I grew up on the east coast and both sides of my family are from California so I don’t really know any of my cousin’s too well. Plus, all of the cousins on my dad’s side are younger than me and my mom really isn’t too close to her family so I guess I’m not either. My dad has somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 first cousins. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/18 "2004-10-13T09:47:27Z")
Six - three on each side. Each of my parents has a sister, and both had three childrem (as, in fact, dd my parents). The difference in ages is interesting: my oldest cousin is 46, 30 years older than my brother; her children are older than he is. ---
**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/19 "2004-10-13T10:16:54Z")
Eight - four on each side. Both my parents have 2 sisters, each of whom have 2 kids. I have 1 brother, which means that all 5 families have had 2 kids each. Interestingly, the middle sibling on either side has had her first kid one year before the eldest sibling. The youngest sibling on either side has had her first kid exactly 10 years after the first of the cousins was born. Make sense of that, I dare you! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975/20 "2004-10-13T10:19:38Z")
23 on my mother’s side (she has 4 sisters and 1 brother). 1 on my father’s side (he has 1 sister). Can you tell which is the Catholic side of the family? 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-cousins-do-you-have/268975.md?page=2)