While I was working on the post about cousins, Walt and I were discussing other means of expressing relationships between related individuals. We were looking at some charts and they had a notation for Civil Degree and Canon Degree. What does that actually mean?
Civil and Canon degrees are used to explain the distance between two blood relatives.
Civil degree is the number steps it takes to get from one person to the other and uses Roman numerals. Canon degree is the number of steps to a common ancestor and uses Arabic numbers.
If we look at the above example, Georgie and Delores are first cousins. The Civil degree is VI (four) as it takes four steps to get form on person to the other. Georgina -> Elizabeth -> Gerhard & Maria -> Bernard -> Delores.
The Canon degree is 2 because it takes two steps to get to the common ancestor. Gerhard and Maria are the grandparents of both Delores and Georgina.
We can go back another generation with a different cousin and see how the degrees change.
In this case, Georgie and Mildred are 1st cousins once removed. William and Mary are Georgie’s great grandparents and Mildred’s grandparents. The Civil degree is V (five) and the Canon Degree is 3. The Canon degree is 3 because it is based on the longest number of steps to get to the common ancestor.
It we look at the relationship between Georgie and Mildred’s daughter Lucille we find the same Canon degree of 3 but the Civil degree is now VI (six).
I hope you find these posts helpful as you work on your own family’s story!
Diana Killoren
Very confusing; but also interesting.