HMC Family Association

How do you figure out what relation you are to another family member?  Count how many generations it takes to get from you to the first ancestor you are both descended from.

Then count how many steps it takes to come back down to your cousin.

Call the smaller number ( c. ) Subtract the smaller number from the larger and call the difference r, for how many times removed you are.  Your are ( c-1) cousins, r times removed.

Eg: If your great, great, great, great, grand parent is the great grandparent of your cousin, then you are 6 steps away from that common ancestor and your cousin is 3( c ) steps away, so you are (3-1) = 2nd cousins, 6-3=3 times removed.

to ask your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins:

• When were you born? Ask them first if they would like to tell you.
• What was happening in the world when you were a kid?
• What had not been invented yet?
• Draw a picture of what you think life was like during that time.

Have you played the THE OREGON TRAIL VIDEO GAME? (See June 2008 newsletter.) Do you have advice or questions for others who have played it? Send your comments or questions to newsletter@ hmcfamily.org.

Children from both ends of the Oregon Trail, Brian Hewitt’s daughter from Oregon, and Eric Kerr’s Daughters from Missouri, playing with Gary Clifford, the husband of Barbara Kerr, at 2008 reunion