A Family Affair

bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1987) — Fall 1987 // Automne 1987, p. 62

Now that dauntless editor-in-chief and reformed roué Colin Robertson is leaving bout de papier for service among the heathen of the China Coast, the time has finally come to tell the whole story of his exploits among the savages of Rockcliffe that torrid autumn of ’78. What follows is in fact A. Aalto’s favourite puzzle, dedicated to said editor in thanks for friendship and collaboration.

It seems that Colin, acting as inside man for a gang of international jewel thieves interested in a certain wealthy Ottawa family, spent a good deal of that fall casing the family mansion through a discrete grilling of one of the maids (no need to go into details). The main problem turned out to be determining the occupants of the bedrooms on the third and fourth floors, which were laid out in exactly the same pattern (see attached floorplan, good for both floors). This was complicated by the maid’s inability to match first and last names for the people in the house. Apparently the family had a mania for privacy, a mania (so Colin discovered) that even extended to erasing entries from the county records office. All he could determine from these records were the following facts:

• In 1927, a man named Smith (born 1908) married a woman named Wessen (born 1907). They had three children: a boy (born 1929) and two girls (born 1931 and 1932).
• In 1928, a man named Street (born 1906) married a woman named Rhodes (born 1909). They also had three children: a girl (born 1930) and two boys, identical twins (born 1933).
• In 1951 the Smith boy married Mrs. Street’s younger sister (born 1921). This couple had two girls (born 1953 and 1955).
• In 1953, the Street daughter married the brother (born 1919) of the elder Mrs. Smith (nee Wessen). This couple had a son (born 1954) and a daughter (born 1958).
• Finally, in 1954 the Street twins were married in a double ceremony to the two Smith girls. The elder Smith daughter and her husband had a son (born 1955) and a daughter (born 1956). The younger Smith daughter and her husband had two boys (born 1959 and 1960).

Colin determined that 19 of these 20 people were still (i.e. in 1978) living in the mansion. The maid also told him the following facts about these family members.

1. Five of the six married couples still share a room; each of the other family members has his/her own room. By a curious coincidence, no one has a room directly above, below or beside that of his/her brother, sister, mother, father, son, daughter, grandmother, grandfather, granddaughter or grandson.
2. Grandfather Street has red hair; so do two of his children and two of his grandchildren. Similarly, Grandmother Myrna has green eyes, as do three of her grandchildren and one of her children. No-one else has green eyes or red hair.
3. Brenda is twice as old as Fred, while Andy is 21 years older than George.
4. Sam’s corner room is diagonally opposite Ed and Carol’s on the same floor.
5. The man in room 43 has red hair.
6. Tom is older than his brother-in-law.
7. Hannah’s room is directly in front of you as you come up the stairs.
8. Olive Smith’s father is married to her uncle’s aunt.
9. David’s room number is the same as his age.
10. The green-eyed man in 32 and his red-haired female first cousin in 36, both single, are having an affair.

11. When Ian Street, the youngest in his family, died in an accident in 1969, his mother blamed her husband. They now have separate rooms, one above the other.
12. Quentin and his wife see the sunset from their window all year round; Richard and Nora have a corner room with a southern exposure.
13. Joan is Laura’s daughter.
14. The red-haired, green-eyed man in 35 has neither brothers nor sisters.
15. Pauline Smith’s room is due west across the hall or entranceway from her younger sister’s; Pauline has green eyes like her Aunt Karen’s.
16. All of the married women have taken their husbands’ surnames.
17. All 19 family members have already had their birthdays for 1978.

Can you duplicate Colin’s amazing feat and work out the first and last name(s) of the occupants) of each bedroom? It may help to draw a family tree.

Lucky Ludwig insists that you be given the following clarifications.

• First, each family member mentioned in the puzzle is one of the original 20 — don’t hypothesize additional relatives (i.e. the phrase “David’s grandfather’s brother” would imply that David, grandfather and brother are all found among the 20).

• The use of the singular does not preclude the plural (i.e. mention of someone’s “brother” doesn’t necessarily mean that this someone has only one of them), nor is the use of a comparative limiting (i.e. mention of a “younger” sibling doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t two of them.)

• Mention of one person inhabiting a room does not, of itself, necessarily mean that he/she does not share it with a spouse.

• “Uncle” implies mother’s or father’s brother, or mother’s or father’s sister’s husband; comparably for “aunt”. “Brother-in-law” implies wife’s brother or sister’s husband. “First cousins” means at least one grandparent in common, but different parents. The mansion, by the way, burned down before the gang could strike, and Colin joined External instead. So it goes.

Our contest winner will be chosen from the first correct
entry drawn on January 15, 1988.

View the original scanned pages →

Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1987) — Fall 1987 // Automne 1987, p. 62. Read the rest of this issue →