Ancestry.com

A couple months ago I created an account with Ancestry.com.

IT IS AWESOME.

I was able to trace direct lineage back to the William Brewster on the Mayflower. I was funny to think that I have the ultimate fundamentalist in my family. If you grew up in a fundamental church, you've heard of separation and the unsupported notion of secondary separation. William Brewster beats them all. It's not tertiary separation or 4th, 5th, 6th, etc... No, they left the entire continent to separate from the unbelievers. That's like infinity separation. Sorry Jack Hyles, he's got you beat.

But anyway Mayflower relatives are cool, but I could not find much else that was really awesome, because that's all I care about in doing this. Who am I related to who is awesome? I could trace back to Bavaria before the Thirty Years War and England during the Tudors, but that's just a cool time not really cool relatives. I cancelled my subscription and left ancestry.com alone for six months or so.

I haven't thought about it much, but ancestry.com does send me emails from time to time saying: "Hey, check us out! We've got new records for you..." So I decided to spend the $20 for one month and check out all the new stuff. To make a long story short, I was able to trace back my English heritage back to Grace Gascoigne, a French sounding name during the middle of Henry VIII reign. This goes back a dozen generations or so then gets real Norman really quick. I'm directly related to Richard I, Duke of Normandy, whose great-grandson was William the Conqueor, Duke of Normandy and King of England. Battle of Hastings? 1066?

BOOYAH.

You would think that would be cool enough, but William the Conqueror is not my great, great great...whatever... grandpa. He's in the family but not as close as I want, not for bragging rights anyway. So not wanting to stop, I keep going back from Richard I of Normandy in hopes of uncovering more awesomeness.

And I found it.

Here's the rest of the list traced from Richard I, Duke of Normandy:

1. William I, Duke of Normandy (Father)
2. Papia de Valois (Grandmother)
3. Pepin de Senlis & de Valois (Great-Grandfather)
4. Pepin, Count Vermandois Quentin (Great-Great-Grandfather)
5. Bernard, King of Italy (Great 3x-Grandfather)
6. Pippin, King of Italy (Great 4x-Grandfather)
7. Charlemagne, Charles the Great, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans. (Great 5x-Grandfather)
8. Pippin the Short, King of the Franks (Great 6x-Grandfather)
9. Charles Martel the Hammer (Great 7x-Grandfather) Battle of Tours


So in all I am directly related to the most powerful Medieval-European King, the guys who led the last successful invasion of England, the winner of the battle of Tours which stopped the spread of Islam into infant Europe, and the Carolingian dynasty where Knights may have first developed, at least made popular, and where feudalism was spread.

Oh yeah and the fundiest guy ever.

If you look at my last post I'm an related to two of the guys on the list. I just found this today.

And then I read this article, and realized that everybody of European decent is probably related to Charlemagne.

My how we're all connected.

Comments

  1. BradeApril 29, 2010 at 9:55 AM

    I'm digging all the Pippins and Pepins on that list.

    ReplyDelete

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