spittle Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 I watched a documentary where an aristocrat was discussing his ancestors coming over with the Normans to England in the 12th Century. He went on to mention their earlier history back to the age of William the Conqueror. It made me wonder how far back certain families know their ancestral tree's? Does anyone know of families who can match or better this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Does anyone know of families who can match or better this? I have traced one branch of my family tree to the 13th Century. (Which I think is quite stunning for a middle class American!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rameses the Great Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 I have traced one branch of my family tree to the 13th Century. (Which I think is quite stunning for a middle class American!) wow. Pantagathus, can you believe that I can't trace my family tree beyond my grandma's mother. Since my family came from the Nile Delta and I looking well to you guys, 'non Egyptian', I always wonder. I'm sad because in a sense I have lost my history. Whose to say that 250 years from now my family will know that I existed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmo Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 The Baux family from S. France claimed to bee descendants of the Balti gothic dinasty. The british dinasty can trace herself to king Offa. Most european noble families can prove genelogies up to the year 1000 when the feudal relations started based on this kind of family lineage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spittle Posted December 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 (edited) Does anyone know of families who can match or better this? I have traced one branch of my family tree to the 13th Century. (Which I think is quite stunning for a middle class American!) Very impressive! I'v got as far back as the late 1800's on my paternal side and I know that my family surname 'Spittle' comes from the old English word for an Inn keeper or Spittler. Hospitality has the same root origin. I am also reasonably sure that we have a connection to the French Protestants (Huguenots) that escaped Catherine DeMedici's attempted genocide. Edited December 6, 2006 by spittle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted December 6, 2006 Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 Very impressive!I'v got as far back as the late 1800's on my paternal side... I was also stunned to be able to document the clear link between my maternal grandfather J.D Maxey to William Maxey who first settled in Virginia in 1625. The Maxey's made it easy for me... They never moved farther than a few hundred miles from William Maxey's original Virginia home and for generations named the male children William or Edward alternatively... My paternal side has proven much harder... My Irish surname of Higgins just doesn't fit a gentile land owning Virgina family that has evidently owned land there since (at least) the 1800's. It is highly suspected (but not confirmed) that my paternal side was a large proportion of tidewater Native American who assumed a European surname (or allied by marriage) because they just sort of Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Augusta Posted December 6, 2006 Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 One of my lines (great grandmother) goes back to Henry VIII, and that is a thoroughly researched line with no conjectures along the way. My main paternal line (of which the above are a branch) only goes back definitely to 1700. Once you start using parish registers alone and you suddenly find that your family has 'disappeared' from a particular parish, the search to find them over even a ten miles radiius is very time-consuming. The only other family of my name living in Cheshire contemporaneously with mine are traceable back to King John in 1212. However, they are definitely NOT mine and my self-discipline as a genealogist (25 years of it!) will not allow me to conjecture that my line should be grafted on to theirs. Unfortunately, many people approach family history and genealogy in something of a slapdash way. I am usually very suspicious about pedigrees that go back beyond mediaeval times when surnames first became permanent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WotWotius Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Sadly I can only trance my Polish ancestry as far back as my Great-great-grandparents; many of my family records were lost during WWII, and most of what I know comes from my family photo album. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecimusCaesar Posted December 22, 2006 Report Share Posted December 22, 2006 I've seen some people claim to trace their families back even further. I saw one person on the internet claiming to be a descendant of King Xerxes of Persia. best take that with a pinch of salt. I can trace my family back to the 19th century, Yet our family did have a more extensive tree. Unfortunately it went missing many years ago. A shame really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Octavius Posted December 22, 2006 Report Share Posted December 22, 2006 (edited) My Lord Pantagathus :notworthy: has a more interesting and important progenitor than he has let on. These days I always manage to incidentally drop the fact when I am 'mongst my compeers and bragging about my friends. Poor :mummy: ! Anyone have "S.P.C." after an ancestor's name? For me, I am the Count of Piedmonte d' Alief. My grandfather told us that the peasants used to kiss his father's left elbow - that is until the day they came after him with a rope and some other nasty things. Figured it was time to head off to the States. Edited December 22, 2006 by Gaius Octavius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlapse Posted December 23, 2006 Report Share Posted December 23, 2006 I have paternal lineage to a man named Michael Du Bois, born in Middlesex around 1585. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Neil Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 Best I can do is a French emigre from the 1790's called Henri Courbet. He hailed from Lille in Northern France. My mother's family have his surname still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 I claim a "Laphau" on the Paternal side , from mid-18th C Ireland. An O'Dwyer from the Welsh Cromwellian settlers of Ireland , and most importantly a MacThrenifhir Dublin Viking (and as I have Dupuytrens contracture ( a rare blood lipid causated contracture of the hand )this appears to be my dominant gene strand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Octavius Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 I claim a "Laphau" on the Paternal side , from mid-18th C Ireland. An O'Dwyer from the Welsh Cromwellian settlers of Ireland , and most importantly a MacThrenifhir Dublin Viking (and as I have Dupuytrens contracture ( a rare blood lipid causated contracture of the hand )this appears to be my dominant gene strand. A thousand or so years ago, NYC had a Mayor O' Dwyer (Catholic). Had a great looking wife. Pres. Truman had to appoint him ambassador to Mexico to keep him out of jail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 Sounds like my family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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