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Thread: I am a sceptic

  1. #1
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    Default I am a sceptic

    A few days ago I was watching a UK quiz show and a contestant claimed her hobbies included genealogy. She claims to have traced her family back to William the Conqueror.
    How would she have done that?

    I have only managed to get one of my lines back to the early 17th century and that contains numerous assumptions so I am only claiming some certainty to the late 18th century , and even then I could be mistaken.

  2. #2
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    Perhaps descended from someone who is mentioned in one of the peerage books perhaps. My Mum has a line which thanks to a family history society and various publications from centuries past can be traced back to before 1420 - I actually haven't researched it but it is well documented through the peerages and wills. Many of my other lines flounder before 1750 especially in Scotland.

  3. #3
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    She might well have done. On the other hand she might have indulged in some creative connections. (I was hoping I might be able to trace back to Nicolaa Delahaye but as she had only daughters that hope was rather rudely dashed! )

    As Mitch says, you need to be able to link into someone mentioned in a peerage book. That's how Matthew Pinsent the Olympic rower was able to have his roots traced back to William the Conqueror on 'Who do you think you are'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Pinsent

    Danny Dyer, an English actor, also had his ancestry traced back to William the Conqueror on the show. There's an interesting comment about that in his Wikipedia entry.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_..._and_education


    As for Nicolaa DelaHaye, her wikipedia entry contains details about her children (and in fact her name because I understood she became a Delayaye on marriage, not at birth) that differ from a talk I listened to last weekend given by someone who has extensively researched Nicolaa.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_de_la_Haie

    Pam
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

  4. #4
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    If she had used FamilySearch, she could have got a lot further back than William the Conquerer. My favourite FamilySearch ancestor is the Norse god, Odin. And of course his wife, Mrs Odin!

  5. #5

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    Peter, that makes us distant cousins!

    Mind you, you don’t need FamilySearch for that - I have a book that traces the heritage of the Royal Stuart’s back to Adam, and thence to the occupants of Olympus! The first edition was prepared for James VI and I.

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    on another episode of WDYTYA the BBC's Frank Gardner was shown to be descended from William too, but they only researched as far as the 16th century to make the connection

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    Try inputting God or Jesus Christ into a well known search engine for family trees (A***)and see how many hits you get.......

  8. #8

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    Luck and preservation of a higher status geneology.

    Three of my family trees I can only trace back to 1700/1600 but one I can trace back to 1400

    It’s just luck and probably the families status in the uk at the time if records was kept

  9. #9
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    Some great answers in the above bringing a smile. I had considered the peerage but there again the link into them has be conclusively proven.
    Too many people make statements but cannot produce documented proof - so I am still skeptical of some claims.

    But I didn't see any posts referring to the DNA route - surely if she had used that she would have got back to Adam !!!!!

  10. #10
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    I can't see the attraction of being related to royalty. So many monarchs seem to have been despotic warmongers.

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