SNGF: How Many Cousins Do You Know You Have?

Randy at Genea-Musings has challenged us to another Saturday night of genealogy fun. Tonight's mission is:

1)  Take both sets of your grandparents and figure out how many first cousins you have, and how many first cousins removed (a child or grandchild of a first cousin) you have.

2)  Extra Credit:  Take all four sets of your great-grandparents and figure out how many second cousins you have, and how many second cousins removed you have.

HINT:  Make a Descendants Chart with your genealogy software program!

3)  Tell us the grandparents and great-grandparents names, but don't give the name of living cousins unless you want to.  

4)  Are there any of those lines that you don't know all of the cousins names?  Do you care?  

5)  Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post of your own.  Be sure to drop a comment to this post to link to your work.  

My paternal grandparents are Benford Maurice Trahan and Merlene Golda Mertena. They had four sons. 

My dad is the oldest. He has three children: myself, my sister, and my brother. My sister has 2 children, a daughter and a son. My brother and I do not have any children yet.

My Uncle D has 2 children, a son and a daughter. His son has one son. His daughter does not have any children yet.

My Uncle B does not have any children.

My Uncle T has two children, a son and a daughter. Neither of them has any children yet. 

All in all, I have four first cousins and one first cousin once removed on my paternal side.

My maternal grandparents were John Peter Pemberton and Violet Mae Currie. They had eight children.

My Uncle John (1950-2011) had one son. He has two children, a son and a daughter.

My Aunt D has three children, two daughters and one son. Her oldest daughter has one stepdaughter. Her son has two sons. Her youngest daughter has three sons.

My Uncle G has three children, a son and two daughters. His son has one daughter. His daughters do not have any children yet.

My Uncle S has four sons. His oldest son has two sons and a daughter. None of his other sons have children yet.

My Uncle B does not have any biological children. He has two stepchildren, one of whom is actually married to my Uncle S's oldest son (we like to keep it in the family). His stepson does not have any children yet.

My Uncle M does not have any biological children either. He has three stepchildren, one stepson and two stepdaughters. They have numerous children, but I am not sure how many.

My Aunt G has three daughters. Her oldest daughter has four children, one son and three daughters. Her middle daughter has three children, two daughters and one son.

All in all, on my maternal side, there are 14 biological first cousins and 5 first step-cousins. There are 18 first cousins once removed and one first step-cousin once removed.

Now just to confuse matters on my maternal side, after my grandfather died, my grandmother married my bonus grandpa (or what some people would call a step grandpa), Clifford Robert Drouillard. He had four children from a previous marriage, three daughters and one son.

His oldest daughter has two sons, but I am not sure how many children each of them have.

His second oldest daughter has three children, two daughters and a son. Her oldest daughter has three sons, her son has a daughter, and her youngest daughter has a son.

His son has two children, a daughter and a son. His daughter has two sons. I am not sure if his son has any children.

His youngest daughter has two children, a son and a daughter. Her son has a daughter. Her daughter has two children, a son and a daughter.

So that now makes 9 additional first step-cousins and 10 known first step-cousins once removed.

It does bother me that I don't have all the names of some of my first step-cousins once removed. All I need to do is ask questions!

My paternal grandfather's parents were Bienvenue Trahan and Beatrice Marie Boneaux. They only had one child, my grandfather, Benford. So I do not have any first cousins or first cousins once removed on this side.

My paternal grandmother's parents were Merlen Paris Mertena and Hassie Cora Proffitt. They had four children, two boys and two girls.

Their oldest son, William John Mertena (1931-2001), had four daughters and one son. His oldest daughter has one daughter. His second daughter has a son and a daughter. His third daughter has one daughter. His fourth daughter has two sons and one daughter. His son does not have any children.

The second child, was my grandmother, Merlene, who had four sons mentioned above.

The third child, Joseph Henry Mertena (1941-1998), had one daughter. She has two daughters.

The fourth child, Jill, does not have any children.

This results in six first cousins once removed and nine second cousins on my paternal side.

My maternal grandfather's parents were John Vital Pemberton and Mabel Ellen Crysler. They had 10 children, four sons and six daughters.

Their oldest son was my maternal grandather, John Peter Pemberton, mentioned above, who had eight children.

The second child is Eva Mae Pemberton (1930-2012). She had three children, two sons and a daughter. Her youngest son has two children, a son and a daughter. I do not know if they have any children. I don't think her daughter had any children. Her oldest son died in a motorbike accident at age 14.

The third child is Uncle B. He does not have any children.

The fourth child is Theodore Lewis Pemberton (1932-1935). He died at age 3 from whooping cough.

The fifth child is Franklin Mearl Pemberton (1931-2008). He had two children, a son and a daughter. His daughter has three children, two daughters and a son. I don't think his son has any biological children. He may have some stepchildren, but I do not know how many.

The sixth child is Evelyn Marie Pemberton (1936-1948). She died at the age of 11 from complications due to epilepsy.

The seventh child is Aunt N. She has seven children, four daughters and three sons. I don't know how many children they all have.

The eighth child is Aunt B #1. She has seven children, five daughters and two sons. Her oldest daughter, R.P. #1, has three children, two sons, D.P. and J.P., and one daughter, E.P. D.P. has one son, J.P. has two daughters and a son, and E.P. has two sons. Aunt B's second daughter, R.P. #2, has four children, one son, R.P. and three daughters, L.P., B.P. #1, B.P. #2. R.P. has two sons, L.P. has three sons and one daughter, and one of the B.P.'s has a daughter and two sons. The other B.P. does not have any children. Aunt B's oldest son, W.P., has one son, who has one son. Aunt B's third daughter, R.P. #3, has one son and one daughter. Her daughter has a daughter and a son. Her son does not have any children. Aunt B's fourth daughter, B.J.P., does not have any children. Aunt B's fifth daughter, D.P., has one daughter. Aunt B's youngest son, D.P., has two sons. Keep in mind I'm not sure if all this is 100% accurate. I interviewed Aunt B and one of her daughters back in 2007 when I was visiting, but there may have been more kids born since then.

The ninth child is Aunt B #2. She does not have any children.

The tenth child is Mary Margaret Pemberton, who died at the age of 23 from epilepsy. She was never married.

Then after John Vital Pemberton died in 1950, my great-grandmother, Mabel Ellen Crysler, married a second time to Daniel Robert Beedon. They had one son together, who has two children. I'm not sure how many children they both have.

All in all, that is 19 first cousins once removed, two half-first cousins once removed, 18 known second cousins (and lots of unknown), and 18 known second cousins once removed (and lots of unknown).

My maternal grandmother's parents were Archie Currie and Jennie Grace Christina Plaine. They only had one child, my grandmother, Violet Mae Currie, so there are no first cousins on this side.

Well, that was a fun exercise. Now I know who I need to interview (or re-interview).