"Hence me contacting you" vs "hence I contacted you" [closed]

I am writing a to a business recipient and ended up with the following sentence (version 1):

Yes, I am aware that your company is not operating this system anymore, but would be most interested in past/historical data, hence me contacting you.

Alternatively, I thought about changing the last part of the sentence to (version 2):

... hence I contacted you.

Ngrams seem to favor version 2, but I have the feeling I read version 1 before. This source seems to indicate version 1 is correct (see the second example, "hence means from this source").

Are both forms correct? Is there a preferred one in this case? Why?

Solution 1:

Cambridge English Dictionary gives the following for this sense of hence:

that [the following] is the reason or explanation for:

• His mother was Italian, hence his name – Luca.
• Peter's leaving at the end of this week – hence his anxiety to get his work finished.
• The prime minister was attending the conference, hence all the extra security.
• He's just got a pay rise, hence the new car.
• She's just found out she failed her exams, hence her bad mood.
• The firm is owned by Mark Atkins, hence the name – MA Advertising.

Note that hence is followed in every example by a noun phrase, after a comma or dash depending on the amount of dramatic emphasis (vs smooth flow of the text) desired.

Here is an example from another thread on ELU showing an ing-form string following [not directly] hence:

• The video is terrible, hence my writing about it.

The idiomatic version would here be ... hence my contacting you (though hence can also be used with the meaning therefore, allowing ... – hence/therefore I contacted you). But this would sound somewhat less professional.