IвЂ™m the oldest great-grandchild on this side of the family, so most of my second cousins donвЂ™t have children yet, but I can imagine a day when our children know each other (they would be third cousins) вЂ“ and maybe even a day when a few of our grandchildren know each other вЂ“ fourth cousins! My grandmother on my dadвЂ™s side and her siblings have made a concerted effort to keep our family вЂњtogetherвЂќ, even though we live spread out all over the whole country.ДЄ number of our extended family members get together occasionally for a great-uncleвЂ™s birthday, or a second cousinвЂ™s wedding. This whole conversation about 4th cousins has got me thinking about my own family. Obviously, the exact number of fourth cousins that you actually have depends on how many children your great-great-great grandparents had, how many children their children had, and so-on and so-on.Д®ven with the average family having 2-3 children per generation, the family will grow exponentially, creating a surprising number of descendants fairly quickly. The average person could have between about 900-1500 fourth cousins. This means that you can have an awful lot of fourth cousins out there somewhere, and itвЂ™s unlikely that you know any of them вЂ“ most people donвЂ™t grow up knowing any fourth cousins personally.

Some of your 4th cousin DNA matches are actually 4th cousinsДЄs you already know, a 4th cousin shares great-great-great grandparents with you. They could be much closer, or much more distant than an actual fourth cousin. You might have noticed that Ancestry DNA has grouped your DNA matches into various categories, ranging from Immediate Family, to 4th Cousin, to Distant Cousin.ДЄs it turns out, Ancestry DNA is only able to estimate your relationship to your DNA match, based on the amount of shared DNA and the number of shared DNA segments.ДЇor this reason, people who are in the 4th cousin category on Ancestry might not actually be fourth cousins.

Why are all my dna matches 4th cousin