How many cousins do you have?

Yes, a separate tree (file) for each male line with 'external' hyperlinks from each spouse to their 'birth' tree. When a female takes a partner, the male links back to his family tree, where his parents and the children are recorded. This is probably something to do with my history of software development and the use of forward and backward chains.

I refer to the multiple trees in a single file as branches, with 'internal' hyperlinks between them. I have probably gone beyond what the original developers of GenoPro envisioned and so far they have not caught up. I can always hope that will not always be so.

Peter could also have made that 4 files, one for each grand parent. I just went a bit further. GenoPro is so flexible and it is possible to organise things to suit one's particular needs. Trees can be auto arranged but I tend to make adjustments manually once I have each branch the way I want it. Splitting and joining branches is trivial. Making such adjustments manually also leads to a better understanding of the elements of the tree.

That is the area where I have perhaps gone too far, for now. 'Internal' links between branches are transparent and the generated Gedcom file is the same as generated for a single tree. 'External' links between trees are not handled at all so I cannot generate a single Gedcom file for all of my trees together.

I really feel that this particular discussion is not something which is relevant for the general forum and suggest that if anyone wishes to go into more detail that they send me a PM to avoid boring most members. I can then send copies of a couple of branches to illustrate the layout and linkages if appropriate.

 

Separate file/tree for each surname. Surnames/trees with more individuals than can be displayed on the screen get split into branches with one branch per tab.

 

Alexander may back me up on this (or not) but I believe that the last half-dozen monarchs of an independent Scotland (could be James 1-6 plus a Mary?) were ALL only children. (I think they all also came to the throne as minors) So there were no cousins of any degree that you would notice, putting the royal family in pretty wobbly position until James I and VI improved the situation by having a number of children.

 

I have 14 first cousins, 3 maternal and 11 paternal, 2 of the paternal ones being half cousins. I have 25 second cousins, only 1 maternal and 24 paternal.

MacFamilyTree distinguishes between cousins removed (i.e. in the generation below) and cousins removed up, which is helpful.

 

My maternal grandparents had 20 grandchildren. My parents had four children so that would mean I have 16 cousins on my mother's side, all still living (I am second eldest). Those cousins have at least 20 children of their own, (two deceased), and some of them have children.

My Dad had two sisters. One had one son and the other had 10 children, so 11 cousins there. The one son had four children and they have children as well. I know nothing about the other 10 besides their names.

 

I have 1 blood first cousin (maternal, no paternal) and 2 more if you count the orphan wards which my missionary aunt 'adopted'............... I have 28 maternal 2nd cousins and 4 paternal 2nd cousins making 32 in total, though almost all come from my maternal grandmother's line and I know very few of them.