WHO’S YOUR KIN? Is it cousin or “cud’n?”
OK. Here we go again. If you are going to live in the Southland you must learn how we count kin.
Wilbur J. Cash in his book “Mind of the South” said that everyone who lives in the South is kin to everyone else within a thirty-mile radius. What he said was nearer to the truth in 1939 when he wrote his book, but that was before WWII, Interstate Highways and northerners’ reluctance to shovel snow six months out of the year shuffled America’s population. And, before “Moving South” became a national obsession. But, it still remains somewhat true – at least for those of us who have been in the region for all of our lives.
So, here’s how you count kin:
We all know about brothers, sisters, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles but when it comes to cousins, it gets a little more complicated so, here’s the format.
Children of siblings (brothers and/or sisters) are first cousins.
Children of the siblings’’ children are second cousins.
The relationship of a first cousin to one of these second cousins is a first cousin – once removed.
The kinship of the first cousin to the second cousin’s child is first cousin – twice removed.
Two second cousins’ children are third cousins. And so on with the “removeds.”
Thusly, your grandfather’s first cousin is your first cousin twice removed. It really gets complicated when you get down the line to second cousins – thrice removed. But you’ll eventually figure it out.
One more reminder: we don’t pronounce the word “cousin” like folks from other parts of the country. To us, the word is “cud’n” as in “Cud’n George” and we always insist on adding the prefix, “Cud’n,” before the first name. I was speaking with a friend the other night about the subject and he said that he was grown before he understood that his Cousin Lucy’s proper given name was not “CudenLucy.”
We could just solve the whole problem by adopting the practice of the venerable Charlestonian, former state Senator and Member of the US House of Representatives, Arthur Ravenel, Jr. who calls everyone, “Cousin” or “Cud’n” — as the case may be.