September 27, 2004

• i had a friendly disagreement recently over the definition of a 'second cousin' - it's something i wasn't clear about myself until not too long ago.  if you were wondering as well, here's a chart that helps you determine how you and someone else in your extended family is related (taken from www.genealogy.com):

  1. pick two people in your family and figure out which ancestor they have in common. for example, if you chose yourself and a cousin, you would have a grandparent in common.
  2. look at the top row of the chart and find the first person's relationship to the common ancestor.
  3. look at the far left column of the chart and find the second person's relationship to the common ancestor.
  4. determine where the row and column containing those two relationships meet.

  common ancestor	child	grandchild	g-grandchild	g-g-grandchild
  child	sister or brother	nephew or niece	grand-nephew or niece	g-grand-nephew or niece
  grandchild	nephew or niece	first cousin	first cousin, once removed	first cousin, twice removed
  g-grandchild	grand-nephew or niece	first cousin, once removed	second cousin	second cousin, once removed
  g-g-grandchild	g-grand-nephew or niece	first cousin, twice removed	second cousin, once removed	third cousin

  since so many asians in the united startes are first and second-generation americans, few of us have met any relatives beyond our grandparents and their descendants.  i always wonder if any of my grandparents' siblings have families over here - if so, there could potentially be a large number of people that i might be related to and not even realize it.  while this doesn't really mean a whole lot, it'd be kind of cool to find out who these people are, and even cooler (or weirder) if it included anyone i knew already. 

  beyond my own line of aunts and uncles and cousins, there is only one line of extended relatives here in the u.s. that my family has kept in contact with - my mom's aunt (my grandaunt, or gu-puo) and her descendants.  they're an interesting and diverse family - within this line i have a second cousin who's a korean adoptee, another second cousin who's hapa, and a second cousin, once removed who's an adoptee from guatemala.  this is also the line that's supposedly connected to amy tan in some distant way - i don't know the exact connection but it's something to the effect of a relative of amy tan marrying one of my grandaunt's husband's relatives.  which would make me absolutely nothing.

  from just one of my grandparent's siblings, there are so many interesting individuals and stories.  who knows what else i could find out about my other relatives?  i've considered putting together some sort of family genealogy, obviously not for any practical purpose but simply for knowledge and legacy's sake.  like any second-generation asian trying to get in touch with their culture, i'd love to gain enough information to make a trip back to the mainland and see where my parents were born and where their families lived for centuries.  of course, it's hard to find such data beyond the head-knowledge of family.  grandparents are key, but since all but one of mine have passed away, the sources of data are even more limited.  regardless, it's something i'd like to pursue if only time and energy would permit.

  for now, i can only keep my eyes open for anyone who shares my surname.  while my english last name is not uncommon, i have yet to meet anyone with the same chinese surname as myself who isn't related to me.  so if you or anyone you know has the chinese surname 'ji' (season), let me know - we're probably second cousins or something.

  • 11:16 am
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