If your parents are/were both only children, then you will have had zero first cousins. If they both came from large families who produced many next generation offspring then you may have hundreds of first cousins.
For clarity’s sake this poll is for a count of the number of offspring of your blood uncles and aunts on both sides of your family. Not step-cousins unless they are the offspring of a blood aunt or uncle. Not first cousins once removed or any of that. Just plain first cousins.
You don’t have to do an actual count. A reasonable guess will work.
An example: On my mother’s side there are three. On my father’s side there are nine. So my total number of first cousins is twelve.
I think the wording was probably to accommodate the inclusion of first cousins who have shuffled off the mortal coil, as one of mine has.
I’m at nine – seven paternal, two maternal. But as the youngest of six with a 20-year span between youngest and oldest, my first cousins are all much older than me. I’m closer in age to my second cousins.
My mom was one of twelve, so a huge glut there. And if we were counting first cousins once removed, I could add at least twenty more. My grandmother has something like sixty living descendents.
Two paternal and I-honestly-lost-count maternally. At least forty - there were six siblings with five large families, and my namesake uncle had two sets over time.
My mom has 140+, because both of her parents came from families of 12 kids so she had a lot of aunts and uncles out there. She’s only close-ish with a handful, though.
