The puzzle of consanguinity

The nominal starting point: The Cole Family at Drummoyne in 1924

A system of degrees and removes is used to describe the relationship between two cousins and the ancestor they have in common.

The degree (first, second, third cousin, etc) indicates one less than the minimum number of generations between both cousins and the nearest common ancestor. For example, a person with whom one shares a grandparent (but not a parent) is a first cousin; someone with whom one shares a great-grandparent (but not a grandparent) is a second cousin; and someone with whom one shares a great-great-grandparent (but not a great-grandparent) is a third cousin.

The remove (once removed, twice removed, etc) indicates the number of generations separating the two cousins from each other. The child of one's first cousin is one's first cousin once removed because the one generation separation represents one remove. The child of one's great-aunt or uncle (one's parent's cousin) is one's first cousin once removed because their grandparent (one's own great-grandparent) is the most recent common ancestor.

I took this from Wiki and I am not convinced that I have it right, that alone that I understand it and can apply it. I will find some tricky photos and try to work out my relationship with those in the photos.

First cousins: Jeff Tonkin, Julie Storry & Brett Jurecka (together with Brett's friend, Desi)

All this is brought on because with two of my cousins (1st Cousin Sandra and 2nd Cousin Rhonda), I am organising a Cole Family Reunion which is looking likely for 27th March, 2011.