About Cousinator   ....


Let's climb some family trees!   COUSINATOR generates a list of CSBA members that you are related to and provides details on each relationship.

Cousinator is the copy-righted property of Chris Caravella, CSBA member and acting webmaster for Ustica.org, and is made available freely to the CSBA membership.


 

Before we get started ... a few things to note up front

You must login at the myCSBA page with a valid user ID and password AND you must be an active member of CSBA.   If your membership lapses, you will be unable to access this feature.   Report any issues with the login procedure by clicking on the link to the webmaster at the myCSBA page.   Once you login, you will not be required to login again for up to one year, depending on your browser and security settings.

Any person wishing to join the CSBA has the option of submitting their family history (4 generations) by filling out the "Descendant of Ustica" section of the CSBA membership enrollment form.   (Members can view their original enrollment form by choosing the "View Profile" option at myCSBA.)   This information, in turn, is added to the Ustica Genealogy Homepage (UGH) family charts and any research needed to tie the member to an existing family is performed and entered into the UGH.   Since the UGH stores the genealogical hierarchy of every person in the charts, the relationship between any two individuals can be determined by literally "climbing their family trees" and looking for a common ancestor.   This is the basis for COUSINATOR.

 

OK so let's look at the report!

COUSINATOR will attempt to determine the genealogical relationship of the CSBA member submitting the request to every other CSBA member.   Any relationships found are displayed and ordered by how closely related your are to the other CSBA members.   Your closest family member will be listed first and your most distant cousin last.   At the end of the report are listed CSBA members that cannot be tied to your family lineage.   Here's an abbreviated example of a COUSINATOR report:

 

COUSINATOR Report
CSBA member: Chris Caravella


You are the ...

  child of George Caravella of New Orleans, LA
  sibling of Nancy Roach of The Woodlands, TX
  sibling of Karen Gidlow of Houston, TX
  3rd cousin of William Bradley of Tigard, OR

  4th cousin once removed of Maria Compagno of Mandeville, LA
...


Relationships have not been found for Ken Boe, Guy Favaloro, ...

 

Note that all of the names are hyperlinked.   Clicking on any hyperlinked name will bring up that member's UGH family chart in a separate window (or tab) for quick reference.   Clicking on the radio button in front of the name of a related CSBA member and hitting the Enter key ( or clicking on the Cousin Details button) will generate a detailed report in a separate window (or tab) of your relationship in the following format:

 

COUSINATOR Detail Report
CSBA member: Chris Caravella


You are the 4th cousin once removed of Maria Compagno

4th great-grandparentAntonino Mascari m. Angela Picone3rd great-grandparent
3rd great-grandparentVincenzo Mascari m. Carmela Guminais the sibling ofMaria Mascari m. Giuseppe Caezzagreat-great-grandparent
great-great-grandparentAntonino Mascari m. Rosa Cultrarois the 1st cousin ofAngela Caezza m. Pietro Bertuccigreat-grandparent
great-grandparentNunziata Mascari m. Gaetano "George" Caravellais the 2nd cousin ofMaria Bertucci m. Francesco Bertuccigrandparent
grandparentJoseph Anthony Caravella m. Nola M Welchleyis the 3rd cousin ofGiovanni Bertucci m. Rosalia Martelloparent
parentGeorge Sherman Caravella m. Maydel Cureis 4th cousin ofMaria Bertucci m. Salvadore Compagno 
 Joseph Christopher Caravella m. Pamela Landryis 4th cousin once removed ofMaria Bertucci m. Salvadore Compagno 

 

The first row of the table lists the common ancestor and the relationship of that ancestor to the CSBA member submitting the request (left side) and that of the CSBA member found to be related to the submitter (right side).   Each subsequent row steps down each family tree one generation at a time, thus displaying the parent-child path from the common ancestor to both the submitter and the related CSBA member.   For example, the second row reads Chris Caravella (the submitter) has a 3rd great-grandparent named Vincenzo Mascari who is the sibling of Maria Mascari who is the great-great-grandparent of Maria Compagno (the related CSBA member).   Every name listed in the table is also hyperlinked to bring up that person's UGH family chart in a separate window (or tab) for quick reference.

In an actual COUSINTAOR report, there would be many more entries of related CSBA members for you to explore.   For our humble test subject, COUSINATOR revealed 80 relationships of the 95 members that submitted their family histories, which is pretty incredible since he is actually only 1/4 Usticese.   Like any of us ever doubted we all were related!

 

Frequently Asked Questions


Will my report change as more new members join?

What if I'm related to someone by more than one common relative?

I didn't include my family history on my enrollment form.   Can I have it added now to take advantage of the COUSINATOR?

Can everyone see my COUSINATOR report?

What does "once removed" mean?

I'm still not getting how relationships work.   How do you figure them out?

Can I contact my newly found cousins?

I have a friend who I know is a CSBA member but I can't find them in my report.   What's up with that?

How much is CSBA membership and how do I sign up?

Who owns the COUSINATOR application?

 


 

Will my report change as more new members join?

COUSINATOR, like all of the UGH, is dynamic.   That means every time you run it, it pulls the latest and greatest information into your report.   So, the real answer is that your report will only keep growing as more people become CSBA members and also as more data is added to the UGH family charts.

 

What if I'm related to someone by more than one common relative?

COUSINATOR only finds the closest common relative, meaning the one with the fewest generations between you and that someone else you are related to.   And, yes, the COUSINATOR is a bit sexist in that, for example, it would choose your father as the common relative between you and your sister even though your mother is equally related to you both.

 

I didn't include my family history on my enrollment form.   Can I have it added now to take advantage of the COUSINATOR?

Sure.   But you will have to resubmit a signed CSBA membership enrollment form.   The new form will be appended to your original form and added to your profile.   Make sure to write a note on the form explaining that you are simply submitting your family history.

 

Can everyone see my COUSINATOR report?

Only you can see your COUSINATOR report, just as only you can see your membership profile.   Every effort is taken to protect the personal information of CSBA members.   The website is built to know who you are when you initially log in (you could remained logged in for up to one year).   Try logging out of myCSBA and you will see how restrictive the interface is for non-members.   Also note that CSBA members are not required to enter family history information on their enrollment form, but without it, you can't take advantage of COUSINATOR.

 

What does "once removed" mean?

To be "removed" simply means that one related person has more generations between their self and the common ancestor than the other related person has between their self and the common ancestor.   For example, if I have to go back 4 generations to get to our common ancestor and you only have to go back 2 generations, then that means we are "twice removed" and you are probably realllllly old.   Note also that with unequal generational differences, you always use the cousin designation of the person with the least number of generations back to the common ancestor.   So in the previous example, I am your 2nd cousin twice removed and your are my 2nd cousin twice removed.

 

I'm still not getting how relationships work.   How do you figure them out?

Genealogical relationship (kinship) can be a daunting subject to understand.   Presented below is a kinship matrix in which the axes represent increasing generations for 2 separate people.   I know it's still confusing!   You read it like this:   If our common ancestor is 3 generations back from me and 1 generation back from you, then you are my great-uncle/aunt and I am your great-nephew/niece.

 012345
0selfchildgrandchildgreat-grandchildgreat-great-grandchild3rd great grandchild
1parentsiblingnephew/niecegreat-nephew/niecegreat-great-nephew/niece3rd great-nephew/niece
2grandparentuncle/aunt1st cousin1st cousin once removed1st cousin twice removed1st cousin 3 times removed
3great-grandparentgreat-uncle/aunt1st cousin once removed2nd cousin2nd cousin once removed2nd cousin twice removed
  4   great-great-grandparentgreat-great-uncle/aunt1st cousin twice removed2nd cousin once removed3rd cousin3rd cousin once removed
53rd great-grandparent3rd great-uncle/aunt1st cousin 3 times removed2nd cousin twice removed3rd cousin once removed4th cousin

 

Can I contact my newly found cousins?

Not at this moment.   Future upgrades may allow an email link on CSBA member names if it can be programmed not to reveal the actual email address.   Revealing email adresses should be the personal decision of each individual member.

 

I have a friend who I know is a CSBA member but I can't find them in my report.   What's up with that?

Only CSBA members who have submitted their family history on their enrollment form will appear on your report.   Your friend can resubmit a signed CSBA membership enrollment form with family history information.   Make sure a note is written on the form explaining that it is being resubmmited to provide family history.

 

How much is CSBA membership and how do I sign up?

Please refer to the CSBA membership page.   CSBA now has online application and payment through PayPal.   You can also choose to print and mail in your application.

 

Who owns the COUSINATOR application?

COUSINATOR was built by and is the copy-righted property of Chris Caravella, CSBA member and acting webmaster for Ustica.org.   It is made available freely to the CSBA membership.