So my late grandmother was really into genealogy and did a lot of research into my ancestry on both maternal and paternal sides. Well, apparently now it is a lot easier to do genealogical research. And so my sister in law took everything that my late grandmother had done and did some backtracking on it. Gold. Okay, so I already had extensive extensive information on the lineage of my maternal grandfather. We can trace that back to Kent, England in 1566. And I thought that was pretty impressive...until yesterday. We weren't able to go nearly as far back on my paternal side, until my sister in law -- as mentioned above -- did some further investigation. And now, drumroll please, we have definitely established that I am the spawn of bastard* royalty. Henry VIII, King of England, the one who married Anne Boleyn (among others), had many children, some legitimate, others not so much. Well, you can draw a straight paternal line between KidB and the spawn of Henry VIII and his mistress (while married to Anne Boleyn). Freaking Tudor Dynasty, man! How badass is that? I'm probably in line to be king of england. I'm definitely somewhere in the back of the line, but you never know. Whatch'y'all got? ____________________________________ *Not disowned, in fact supported, but kept by English law from inheritance.
So, yeah, 500 or so years ago my great to the 10th* grandmother was banging the King of England. *Not sure of the actual number.
This is something I've never done, but really want to at some point. I've always thought it was interesting.
My wife is a direct descendant of William the Conqueror, Charlemagne- Holy Roman Emperor, and several Italian Kings. I'm a Scot-Irish, Melungeon, Cherokee, English mutt. I have a geneaologist in the family. She traced my maternal grandfather's line back to 1054, I think. Last guy she found was named John Cokayne from Black Forest, Germany. I can lay claim to John C. Calhoun being my 4th great uncle on my maternal grandmother's side. Not sure if that's a good thing though.
Now that we can trace me back to Henry VIII, freaking wikipedia can do the rest of the leg work for me. I've got 820 after two clicks of the mouse. Rhodri the Great - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Be careful what you wish for. I was interested in ancestry also, about 3yrs ago. I started doing some research and my uncle said "your aunt has done a family tree, why don't you take her info and combine it with yours?" I said sure, so he sent it to me. To my surprise, at the tender age of 38 I found out I was adopted. Nobody had ever told me. Even my best friend since kindergarten knew it but never said a word to me. I cussed every remaining living family member of mine out for not telling me. Wild thing to find out fellas. Not sure there is a good way to tell someone that kind of thing, but at some point you have got to do it.
Wow. I have a niece that's adopted, but they are very open about it. She's 5, but it's not like it isn't obvious. My sister-in-law and her husband are lilly white and their daughter is half African-American.
I think the closest we ever came was a 3rd cousin or something to the King of Scotland, back when that was important to the Scottish people. Ya know, before we rolled William Wallace over in his grave and kneel'd at feet of a former oppressive and out of control monarchy hell bent on ruling a people they don't understand. But my name is pronounced a bit differently, now, due to English bastardization. Also, apparently, I'm related to Adam and Eve. But meh, they also sold their inheritance for a small piece of food and a little bit of power.
Mine is pretty interesting. Direct descendant of the inventor of the fountain pen, the inventor of the flushing toilet, and a guy named Scot the Wizard in the 1400's. Mostly French and Scottish, some English.
Given how much you suck I think we can safely assume an ancestor of yours invented the vacuum, as well. Boom.
I did some starting work a couple of years ago and discovered that I, disturbingly, was part French. On a more positive note, the only real historical note was on my Dad's side where one ancestor had been fined in a nearby Massachusetts village for speaking against the Salem Witch Trials by the Puritan leadership of the time.
I got the Beecher side back to the early 1500s. The last one I found was the sheriff of London. One of his sons was granted 15000 acres in Ireland to colonize by the queen. They were from Kent England as well.
He had a grandson Sir William Beecher. From all accounts I have found they rolled with the elites of the day. I want to know what happened to that.
