Category: Buchan

Further Pedigree Collapse

I previously posted about ‘cousin marriage’ and ‘pedigree collapse’ in my tree here.

I had wondered what effect two less ancestors would have on the ancestor count in my family tree. It turned out, two less ancestors meant that in 17 generations I had 254 less ancestors.

I’ve now discovered another cousin marriage in my tree.

My 4th great-grandparents, Arthur Buchan and Agnes Buchan, married at Rathen, Aberdeenshire in 1828. Their fathers were brothers (as shown in the diagram below).

 

My pedigree is now only typical until the 8th generation, where I lose two 5x great grandparents, which leads to the loss of another 2046 ancestors by the 17th generation.

My ancestor count now looks like this:

Generation Relationship Typical Number My Number Ancestors Lost
1 Me
2 Parents 2 2
3 Grandparents 4 4
4 1x Great grandparents 8 8
5 2x Great grandparents 16 16
6 3x Great grandparents 32 32
7 4x Great grandparents 64 64
8 5x Great grandparents 128 126 -2
9 6x Great grandparents 256 252 -4
10 7x Great grandparents 512 504 -8
11 8x Great grandparents 1024 1006 -16-2
12 9x Great grandparents 2048 2012 -32-4
13 10x Great grandparents 4096 4024 -64-8
14 11x Great grandparents 8192 8048 -128-16
15 12x Great grandparents 16384 16096 -256-32
16 13x Great grandparents 32768 31562 -512-64
17 14x Great grandparents 65536 64384 -1024-128
TOTAL 131070 128770 -2300

If I find any more, I will make sure to update.

(If you believe that I have actually calculated incorrectly, please let me know!)

Related posts:

Chiropody at Trentham

Kissing Cousins?

Desperately Seeking John - A Sad Conclusion

Drowned Near the Boat Shore

Fishing Boat in Rough Seas by Rein Miedema (1884)

On 26 October 1859, cousins Andrew Buchan (23) and Robert Buchan (17), drowned when their boat was overturned by a strong wind in deep water (Robert was incorrectly named Arthur in the article). The cause of death given on their death records was, “Drowning Near the Boat Shore”. John Buchan, Andrew’s brother, certified that both were buried at St Combs Churchyard.

clipping from newspaper
Aberdeen Journal, 5 October 1859, p3, c6

Their fathers, Andrew Buchan and Arthur Buchan, were brothers. Arthur Buchan, father of 23-year-old Andrew, was my 4th great grandfather; and brother of my 3rd great-grandmother, Helen Buchan. Helen was 19 when her older brother, and younger cousin, drowned (she would marry James Findlay two years later). I can only imagine the devastating effect this tragedy had on the family.

Andrew was the one who “left a widow to lament his fate”. He was described as ‘married’ on his death record, but infuriatingly did not give his wife’s name. There was a likely 1857 marriage record to an Isabella Buchan in Rathen, but it was difficult to establish which of the many Isabella Buchans this could have been.

image of two entries in the death register of Lonmay parish, Aberdeen
Death Records of Andrew and Robert Buchan (1859)

I had to cough up the credits and order the marriage record to make sure it was the right one. Sure enough, Andrew’s parents were recorded, confirming it was the correct people. Isabella’s parents were also recorded but leads to another issue… which of the many ‘William Buchan and Elizabeth Duthie’ couples are they?

Related posts:

Five Men Drowned

A Family of Lunatics!

Girls, girls, girls

Pedigree Collapse

Cousin marriage is given the side eye these days but it was a relatively common thing for our ancestors. It seemed to happen a lot with the Wrefords in Devon, and the Buchans in North East Aberdeenshire, but I’ve actually only been able to find it once in my direct ancestral line (so far).

Way back in the mid 18th century, my 6th great-grandparents, Sarah Wreford and John Wreford, married. Sarah and John were 1st cousins – their fathers were brothers.

This kind of situation leads to what is known as ‘pedigree collapse’.

A typical pedigree assumes each set of parents are unrelated to each other and each generation doubles (since each person has 2 parents).

Pedigree collapse occurs when two people who share ancestors reproduce.  

This is demonstrated in the pedigree of Sarah and John’s son (and my 5th great-grandfather), John Wreford:

Instead of having four distinct sets of great-grandparents, Sarah and John’s children had only three.

Their children had only 6 great-parents instead of 8; 12 second great-grandparents instead of 16; 24 third great-grandparents instead of 32; and so on. (The number of ancestors lost each generation doubles: 8 -2; 16 -4; 32 -8; etc.)

This got me wondering. What knock on effect would 2 less ancestors have on my overall ancestor count?

My pedigree is typical until the 11th generation, where I lose 2 8x great grandparents. So instead of 1024 8xGGP, I have 1022; instead of 2048 9xGGP, I have 2044 ; instead of 4096 10xGGP, I have 4088; and so on.

My ancestor count (so far) looks like this:

Generation Relationship Typical Number My Number Ancestors Lost
1 Me
2 Parents 2 2
3 Grandparents 4 4
4 1x Great grandparents 8 8
5 2x Great grandparents 16 16
6 3x Great grandparents 32 32
7 4x Great grandparents 64 64
8 5x Great grandparents 128 128
9 6x Great grandparents 256 256
10 7x Great grandparents 512 512
11 8x Great grandparents 1024 1022 -2
12 9x Great grandparents 2048 2044 -4
13 10x Great grandparents 4096 4088 -8
14 11x Great grandparents 8192 8176 -16
15 12x Great grandparents 16384 16352 -32
16 13x Great grandparents 32768 32704 -64
17 14x Great grandparents 65536 65408 -128
TOTAL 131070 130816 -254

Further calculations will need to be made if/when I find more kissing cousins.

Related posts:

Wreford Versus...

Son of a Lunatic

To Let or Not To Let?

Five Men Drowned – Connections

PLEASE NOTE: The charts shown on this post have an error. The father of Elisabeth Buchan (b1874) was not a granddaughter of John (Park’s Jockie) Buchan (b1792). Please see the post ‘Five Men Drowned – Connections and Corrections’ for an updated chart and explanation.

In the final post of the series, I mentioned that I had not been able to find any direct link to my family from any of the five men. However, I thought it would probably be a good idea to show the links that are there.

Family chart illustrating the connections between author's family and the victims
How the five men connect to my family (click to enlarge image)

Alexander Ritchie Buchan was my second great-grandfather.

  • Charles Bruce was the father-in-law of Alexander’s brother Peter.
  • Andrew Buchan was the cousin of Alexander’s brother-in-law (husband of sister Jessie).
  • Alexander Strachan and Andrew Strachan were the father-in-law and brother-in-law of Jessie’s husband’s cousin (Elisabeth).
  • Andrew Bruce does not currently have any known connection to my family.

Please note: these are the closest connections as they currently stand. The families of St Combs were so entwined, there are bound to be other ways they link and less distant connections may be discovered in time.

UPDATE: 

Less than a day after posting the above, I was able to connect Andrew Bruce. It turns out that Andrew was actually the nephew of Charles Bruce.

Family chart illustrating the connections between author's family and the victims with new addition
Connection chart updated (click to enlarge)

Apparently though, Andrew is more closely connected to my family via a different route:

Family chart illustrating the connections between author's family and the victims with new addition
Closest Connections to my family (click to enlarge)

 

This can be expressed in many different ways – none of those being straight forward.

We could say:

My second great grandfather’s uncle married the second cousin of Andrew Bruce.

OR

My third great grandfather’s brother married Andrew Bruce’s second cousin.

OR

Andrew Bruce was the second cousin of my third great grandfather’s sister-in-law.

OR

Andrew Bruce was the second cousin of the wife of Alexander Ritchie Buchan’s uncle.

OR…

… (It could go on and on.)

Whichever way, I’m glad a connection has been made and will be sure to update here when closer ones are found.

 

Posts in this series:
Five Men Drowned
Five Men Drowned – Two Recovered
Five Men Drowned – Three Buried at Sea
Five Men Drowned – One Survivor

 

Related posts:

Grave Matters

Lunatic in the Family Update

Further Pedigree Collapse

Five Men Drowned – One Survivor

Continued from previous post: Five Men Drowned – Three Buried At Sea

One Survivor

Of the six men who were aboard when a heavy wave swamped a fishing boat on 9 February 1872, James Buchan was the only survivor.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to determine exactly WHO this man was since, unlike the men who did not survive, the newspapers gave no information that could narrow this down.  No age, marital status or family information for James was mentioned in any of the articles. There were at least 20 James Buchans recorded in the Lonmay area on the 1871 census. Even after ruling out the ones who were below the age of 15 and above the age of 60, we are still left with 10 possible James Buchans that could have survived that fateful night. So, sadly, this is where the search must end.

footprints in sand with lighthouse in distance
Rattray Head Lighthouse by Tom Parnell

And what about those links to my own family?

Disappointingly, I’ve also not been able to find any direct link to any of the fishermen involved in this tragedy. If I do manage to find any connection in future, I’ll be sure to update. (See connections update here)

Posts in this series:
Five Men Drowned
Five Men Drowned – Two Recovered
Five Men Drowned – Three Buried at Sea
Update: Five Men Drowned – Connections

Related posts:

Kissing Cousins?

Chiropody at Trentham

A Walsallian Story