first cousins, second cousins, third cousins more

When my grandfather left Ireland for America almost 100 years ago, he landed in New York City. He then headed north to Albany where he had three sisters and a brother. Another brother and a few more sisters followed. They all raised families in Albany and all the cousins were close. As all the first cousins grew and married, they started having families of their own, second cousins abounded. This cycle repeated itself again. In my life growing up we would have a family picnic each summer or better yet go to Aunt Kit's (my grandfather's sister) camp in the stately Helderbergs. I have fond memories of the older cousins pushing the younger ones on the rope swing and running and playing games in the fields in front of the camp. To this day we never referred to each other as first cousins, second cousins or the confusing, cousin once removed, we were family and call each other cousins. This is the legacy of my grandfather, the love of family.

Yesterday was Christmas, I went to my sister Peggy's house. The age range of people there was a little over 90 years from my mother to her great grand daughters. My nephews and their wives, my sisters and my brother and his family. My children were represented by my daughter and her boyfriend and my youngest son. You would think that this would be enough for one day but it wasn't. After dinner I went to my cousin Eileen's house to see cousins and fireworks. Eileen's daughters were in town for the holiday and as the adults were leaving their friends started coming over. People on the outside may look at my family and call us crazy but we, the descendant's of John and Catherine Curran of Kilusty, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, know how to have a good time and it all starts with family

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a few of the younger cousins

a party at a cousins house

[The hard to explain once removed. Start with your grandparents and write their names on a piece of paper. Under that write the names of their childern in a line from right to left. Under each name, write the names of their childern left to right, these are all first cousins ( you all have the same grandparents). Under this line, write the names of all their childern. The term if you go from one line to the next is once removed. What becomes confusing is that after the line of first cousins, the second cousin line is made up of groups of first cousins. The childern of my fathers first cousins are my second cousins, my childern and the childern of my second cousins are third cousins and so forth and so on. You can see why we just called each other cousins.]