Things you learn from your family...

[ULC]

I was playing the battle of hastings last night when I had my aunt talk about how my family was in that battle. She whipped out the family history, and I was shocked. Most of my family met on the battlefield. For instance, one of my grandfathers was one of the knights employed by William the Bastard (sorry, conqueror ). He married the sister of one of the survivng huscarles. One of my Great uncles served in the Varangian Guard. Another was part of the Scottish army under Robert the Bruce. Yet another came from the Teutonic Order and Russia. The Crusader States. Barbossa and the Lombard League. The list goes on. I think the only thing my family hasn't been involved in is the Reconquista. My family seems to have been made, it appears, on the battlefield. One guy kills another and then marries his sister. Does anyone else have such a dysfunctional family tree? Am I alone?

[Brandy Blue]

You must have a long lived family. My grandfather was old enough to serve in World War 2, but he did not because he was more valuable to the allies as a scientist than as a soldier. I gather that your grandfather was at Hastings? I believe the Varangian Guard came to an end in the 13th century, so your great uncle may have been much younger than your grandfather, but a lot older than my great uncle who died as a soldier in WWII.

I am not sure what you are getting at. Is it a joke? There is no way you could have great uncles and a grandfather involved in events that far back. If you are old enough I suppose it is just possible that they were involved in big events from the 19th century.

[seireikhaan]

I think he just referred to them as grandfathers and great-uncles for the sake of not having to say, "my great, great, great, great, great, great, great... grandfather served at hastings. I mean, that's a long ways down the line, so he'd have a lot of 'greats' in his name.

[ULC]

Yes thats what I meant, thanks greater khan. I wished to spare you the "great", mostly becuase of the annoyance of having to type it 30-50 times. If you want to get technical, my grandfather who served William has 46 "greats" attached to his name . Still, any takers?

[Tratorix]

Wow, thats cool. I wish I had a long family history. I can't really trace my family back past my grandfather. Heh, my family doesn't really believe in writing things down .

[Innocentius]

I'm sorry to be the first pessimist in here, but: I believe either you or your aunt (or the both of you) are lying. A lot of people want their family trees to be famous and great, and it's not unusual for people to make things up. For example, according to Swedish genealogy about 50% of the Swedish population are related to Birger Magnusson ("Birger Jarl", an important character in Swedish medieval history) and about 10% would be related to Gustav Vasa.

For me to change my opinion, I would like to see some evidence. There is pretty much no way you can track any families except royal families back to the 11th century and there is pretty much no way you can track any "ordinary" family further back than to the 16th or 17th century.

I for one have seen my mother's family tree dating back to the early 17th century (she is Finnish but Finland was a part of Sweden by the time, and Sweden was one of the first countries in Europe to use national registration) and I can tell that my family were mostly farmers. A few of the men in the family most likely died in the wars (I haven't reserached specifically about individuals, but some of the deaths fit in perfectly with major military operations or battles) but the only one of which I'm certain is my grandfather's uncle who was killed in the Winter War.

[Xehh II]

Relatives on my fathers side say that we're directly related to Robert the Bruce, I don't really believe it though. And on my mothers side they say I'm related to some kind of 18th century french mafia.

[King Antonius]

oh awesome u guys are talking about ur royal istory anyway my family is really in to the genealogy stuff cause were lds and so we found out that were related to Ethelred the Unready (king of England also a bad king he killed all the danish people) and were realated to Charlemagne awesome! and my ancestors were the tailors for the king of england.

[Chaos Cornelius lucius]

My father spent quite a few years researching our family history, and the furthest he could trace it back with any accuracy was to a landholder/squire in Beeston, Nottingham who was born in 1702.(strange that I ended up living there 300 years later).
My family name (Hollingsworth), does have a coat of arms attached, tho' whether it is 'ours' or belongs to someone else of that name I have no idea.
The name comes from old english, Hollings=holly + worth= house/farmstead, so it is 'Fred form the house by the holly grove'. I imagine there would have been quite a few homes by holly bushes in the past so I think a few people would have ended with this as a second name. The first recorded use of the name is in Cheshire in 1307 IIRC.
I think unless your ancestors where high nobility or particularly famous, it would be very difficult to actually make a direct connection between yourself and people who lived more than a couple of hundred years ago, particularly as the vast majority of people could not read or write, and that people had a nasty habit of dying unexpectedly and/or remarrying.(Found out that one of my great grandmothers was married 6 times, all of the husbands been lost at sea)

[King Antonius]

wow how cool my moms maiden name taylor is british and it comes from the given name of tailor and so my ancestors made clothes for the king of england and we have our own family coat of arms its really cool.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I'm not too sure of my family's ancestry. One of my cousins is trying to trace it, but so far he hasn't gone back too far. As far as I know, my family was working class upto my mother and father. My grandmother worked on a butchers stall at the market, while my grandfather was assistant operator in a powerstation. Later, after it closed down, he became a window-cleaner.

Further back, my grandmother told me that my great grandfather was a farm labourer, and, after their farm closed, they moved to the small town which was building up around the coal fired powerstation, the same one which my grandfather was occupied in, with my great grandfather looking for work. My grandmother doesn't know much about what job he did though.

As for the next generation, I really can't be sure without asking one of my uncles whom is trying to trace the family tree beyond our current simple knowledge - it will be interesting to see what it looks like when he gets it completed.

[Brandy Blue]

In the novel Gulliver's Travels (not a kiddie version!) Johnathan Swift satirises the whole concept of royalty/nobility when Gulliver gets an opportunity to view the ancestors of members of royal families. He is disappointed to find out how many of their ancestors were servants or other people who weren't supposed to be in the royal bedroom at all, except maybe to do some cleaning!

Now, without pointing the finger of scorn at anyone's ancestors, I would suggest that the best anyone can do is trace their official family tree as far back as hard evidence permits. Its pretty hard to know who is in your real family tree. If we go by genetics, then 98% of my ancestors are chimpanzees!

[KukriKhan]

spam.

please ignore this post

[Kansas Bear]

I was playing the battle of hastings last night when I had my aunt talk about how my family was in that battle. She whipped out the family history, and I was shocked. Most of my family met on the battlefield. For instance, one of my grandfathers was one of the knights employed by William the Bastard (sorry, conqueror ). He married the sister of one of the survivng huscarles. One of my Great uncles served in the Varangian Guard. Another was part of the Scottish army under Robert the Bruce. Yet another came from the Teutonic Order and Russia. The Crusader States. Barbossa and the Lombard League. The list goes on. I think the only thing my family hasn't been involved in is the Reconquista. My family seems to have been made, it appears, on the battlefield. One guy kills another and then marries his sister. Does anyone else have such a dysfunctional family tree? Am I alone?

Depends whether most can trace their family back that far. Most records have been lost due to war, revolution, religious conflict, etc...


It is generally accepted that my family(Father's side) was forced out of Scotland by Cromwell.


I did have a G-G-grandfather in the Civil War, 2nd Kentucky Calvary.

Both grandfathers were too young for the first world war and too old for the second.

[Kansas Bear]

LordandConqueror,

If you're interested there is a gentleman from Australia, Leo Van de Pas, who is a world renowned genealogist. He has a website that consists mainly of royal/noble genealogy.

http://www.genealogics.org/index.php


Enjoy!

[MeROBIN]

My grandfather told me last night:
,,Hey you should go and kill some russians
-Why grandpha?
-Because you grand grand grand grand..............(after one hour)grandfather was a great warrior,his name was Robin Hood and your grand grand grand grand
(after one hour)grandmother was Joahn D'Arc.And another grand grand grand father was Elvis Presley and grand grand grand mother was Marlin Monroe.
And kill some russians cause we don't have hot water and the plummer is russian"

BTW My grandpha is mad
And BTW again this sounds like YourLordandConqueror story.