This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: MichaelWright12 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.wright/6959.2712.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1.2.2.1.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Dian, Helen was a 10th cousin, once removed. Her father, Albert Allen Wright was a direct 10th cousin. If you study the chart a bit you will see that we can describe the relationship of any person in one generation to anyone else in any other generations by using the "removed" function of the chart. By way of graphically explaining how to read the chart, I have attached an expanded chart showing your husband's relationship to the Wright Brothers and you can see how it works a little better when you examine the two charts together. Your husband would be a 10th cousin, three times "removed" because he is in the third generation following his ancestor, Albert Allen Wright, who was an exact direct generational '10th cousin' to the Wright brothers. The term "removed" refers to the number of generations from which your generation is 'removed' from a direct generational cousin relationship between the two families being compared. I hope that this helps make sense of the chart. The generational relationships in the center of the chart remain the same no matter what families you are comparing. The only imput one makes in developing this chart is to have an accurate lineage for both families that are being compared, and then just put the generations in order for Family #1, left to right across the top of the chart, and Family #2, top to bottom on the left side of the chart. Then you can draw a line from any ancestor in Family #1 to the grid where a line drawn form any ancestor in Family #2 intersects. The relationship stated in that intersection box will be the "cousin" relationship between those two individuals. So, in discussing all of this with you over the last couple of days, I find that for as famous as your late father-in-law was in educational circles in England, and as much as has been written and published about him, there is hardly a mention of his family anywhere. Herbert Lionel Elvin seems to have been a master at keeping his private life, private, for nowhere in all that published material do we have any information on Herbet Lionel Elvin's son, your husband. What little there is on your late mother-in-law Mona Bedortha (nee Dutton) Elvin, is so brief as to be inaccurate. For instance, Lionel's obituary names her as Mona Bedortha only. I know however, that she was a class of '30 philospohy major at Stanford University and a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta women's sorority while there and that she met Lionel in 1933 while she was a student at the exclusive women's Newnham College at Cambridge U, and Lionel was a research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. Naturally, I am curious as to what your father-in-law and mother-in-law were like, as private people, and what it was like for your husband growing up in such a dynamic household. From what I have read of Lionel's publications, lectures and UNESCO memorandums, he carried about with him an astounding intellect and a gift for vision and leadership well beyond most of his peers. More interesting to me is that Mona seems to have been every bit his equal and a woman with the capacity to keep the feet of such an intellectually driven man firmly planted on the ground. I'll bet they were something to have known! Have you ever considered writing a biography about them? I bet you could sell a few copies in England at the very least! At any rate, I hope I have been helpful and would love to continue this conversation about the Elvin family off-post if you care to do so. My direct e-mail is, hardmba at aol.com ('at', of course is @). Cheers, Mike Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.