Earliest Dates

[JillJ]

I'm descended from a long line of bastards!

19 x great-grandfather = John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.  I get there through his daughter Joan Beaufort, illegitimate daughter although later legitimised, of Kathryn Swynford.

26 x great-grandfather = William the Conqueror, illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy and a tanner's daughter.

There's a few Kings of England between those two and there's an awful lot of Ag. Lab's. and miners, as well as a few more famous names, between them and me!  Some were legitimate.

I don't take credit for all the work between me and John of Gaunt and I hope the historians got the rest right!

Jill

[Flourgurl]

Robbo, love that irony about the head of the church being descended from a pagan god!

Nick, I find the same thing about my American ancestors from 1700-1900.  They seemed to have moved around a lot (probably to find work) and if they were poor, not church-goers, and divorced/remarried or widowed early........well I'm just SOL.

Funniest story I have is, I own a photo of a female relative taken around 1860 and on the back she wrote, "Guess who"?  Little did she know I'd still  be guessing 150 years later!

[alftabor]

The earliest ancestor of mine is on my maternal line of Oxlade and the date there is 1538 in Buckinghamshire
on the paternal line Tabor the best we can ascertain is  1722 in Wiltshire
the 1538 date is firm and so is the 1722
Parliament on one and Royalist the other
Alf

[Flourgurl]

At this moment 3 of us are on-line on this thread alone,  representing 3 continents:  US (me), Australia (JillJ) and England (robbo43) - I think I have found a home on-line since my real friends are quite sick of me rattling on about genealogy!

[robbo43]

Welcome Flourgurl, unlikely that anyone here is going to get sick of you rattling on about genealogy.  And they are all knowledgeable, friendly & helpful (except me, I'm a miserable old grouch).

Robert

[Flourgurl]

So you're telling me not to trust the Royal Genealogists?  Ah, I feel like I've just been stabbed.  Whom CAN we trust?

[Eyesee]

I'm descended from a long line of bastards!

19 x great-grandfather = John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.  I get there through his daughter Joan Beaufort, illegitimate daughter although later legitimised, of Kathryn Swynford.

26 x great-grandfather = William the Conqueror, illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy and a tanner's daughter.

There's a few Kings of England between those two and there's an awful lot of Ag. Lab's. and miners, as well as a few more famous names, between them and me!  Some were legitimate.

I don't take credit for all the work between me and John of Gaunt and I hope the historians got the rest right!

Jill

You and I must be related Jill as John of Gaunt was my 19 or 20 X great-grandfather as well. My 2x great grandfather about the early 1800s was mad keen on genealogy, and he knew he was descended somehow from a person called Sir Dudley Digges, buried in the church at Chilham in Kent, who claimed on his tombstone to be descended from the 4 sons of Edward III, John of Gaunt being one of those. He did prove the link and had it written up.

Other lines I can get back into early 1700s, but one cannot get back before 1820.

Ian C

[msallen]

I'm not, as far as I know, descended from John of Gaunt, but I do have one line which was in dispute with him for decades, leading to at least two murders (supporters of Gaunt killed by my ancestors, the Stathams of Morley, Derbyshire).

More recent members of the same family were descended from King John via an illegitmate child of his second son Richard. Obviously once you make a connection to royalty, your ancestry suddenly stretches back well into the first millenium, but personally I tend not to put too much effort into studying such well trodden lines - I prefer to concentrate my efforts on lines which feel a little more personal, and from which I can get the enjoyment of discovering the links for myself.

[JillJ]

Welcome to RootsChat Flourgirl - but since when did Lincolnshire become part of Oz?  I wish!!

Ian, I'm sure we are related but I'm not at all sure we should attempt to find out how!  I think most of the population of England are probably related to him if they but knew it!

One thing I will say about getting back to medieval times is that it's a great history lesson.  If you are lucky enough to get back to 'the nobility' there is usually quite a lot written about them which makes them much easier to trace.  The hard part is connecting to them in the first place!

Good luck to you all.

Jill