Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001347, Wed, 9 Oct 1996 16:54:41 -0700

Subject
Re: ADA genealogical puzzle (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. Can anyone out there confirm (or disprove) the genealogy
below?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 9 Oct 1996 12:10:22 -0400
From: Andy Shaindlin <shain@umich.edu>
To: Donald Barton Johnson <chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu>
Subject: Re: ADA genealogical puzzle

Can someone confirm whether I have successfuly
unraveled the "3rd Cousin" reference?

1) According to OED (2nd ed.), "the children of 1st cousins are 2nd cousins
to each other." This means that for V and A to be 2nd cousins, their parents
must be 1st cousins to each other. I'll use the *legal* parents here (i.e.,
as if V & A were merely cousins and not also brother and sister.

2) Demon and Dan are first cousins to each other: their fathers are brothers
(Dedalus and Ardelion Veen, respectively). Therefore,

3) Their children will be second cousins to each other.

4) Their children - legally, anyway - are Van (Demon's legal son) and Ada
(Dan's legal daughter).

5) For V & A to be 3rd cousins, they would have to be the children of second
cousins.

6) Dedalus and Ardelion are brothers, whose *uncle* is Peter Zemski.

7) PZ is the grandfather of Aqua and Marina. This means that

8) A & M's mother (Dolly!) is a 1st cousin to Dedalus and Ardelion.

9) This makes A/M and D/D 2nd cousins to each other, and therefore

10) Their children (V, A & L) will be 3rd cousins.

I hate to spend so much time on technical items when there's so much more to
be gleaned, but I'm astickler for these details...

I know you are busy but I hope you'll let me know if I've misunderstood this.
Thanks. Enjoying the listserv very much so far.

Andy Shaindlin
shain@umich.edu