Archibald Hume [1796 - 1857], letter to his sister 1839 Pt. 1

On the 21st January this year I received an email from Ian Hume. This was about a letter from Archibald Hume [1796 -1857] to his sister Katherine Moffat nee Hume [1805 - 1898].

Ian is my “half 4th cousin once removed”. He had obtained the letter from Watson Glen Robb who is his “4th cousin” and my “half 4th cousin once removed”.

Before discussing the letter I thought it would be interesting to look at the way in which distant relations are described as I was not clear myself on the relationship between Ian, Watson and myself.

Ian and I have a common ancestor Robert Hume [1757 - 1828] my great (x4) grandfather. As a result we are “4th cousins”. However Robert Hume is Ian’s great (x3) grandfather and so we are “once removed”. I have included below a “cousins chart” or “table of consanguinity” that shows this graphically.

If one person's →		Grand-parent	Great grand-parent	Great(x2) grand-parent	Great(x3) grand-parent	Great (x4) grand-parent
Is the other person’s ↓	then they are ↘
Grandparent		1st cousins	1st cousins once removed	1st cousins twice removed	1st cousins thrice removed	1st cousins four times removed
Great grandparent		1st cousins once removed	2nd cousins	2nd cousins once removed	2nd cousins twice removed	2nd cousins thrice removed
Great(x2) grandparent		1st cousins twice removed	2nd cousins once removed	3rd cousins	3rd cousins once removed	3rd cousins twice removed
Great(x3) grandparent		1st cousins thrice removed	2nd cousins twice removed	3rd cousins once removed	4th cousins	4th cousins once removed
Great (x4) grandparent		1st cousins four times removed	2nd cousins thrice removed	3rd cousins twice removed	4th cousins once removed	5th cousins

A "cousin chart", or "table of consanguinity"

Robert Hume married twice, first to Agnes Morton [1752 - 1797] my great (x4) grandmother and then to Catherine Dewar [1758 - 1843], Ian’s great (x3) grandmother. As a result we do not have the same maternal great grandmother. This is why we are only “half” 4th cousins once removed.

As both Ian and Watson are great (x3) grandsons of Robert Hume and also of Katherine Dewar they are 4th Cousins.

In my next post I will get onto the content of the letter.