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.
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Thread: I am a sceptic
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19-04-2021, 8:26 AM #1
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I am a sceptic
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19-04-2021, 8:33 AM #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.
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19-04-2021, 9:39 AM #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
PamVulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
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19-04-2021, 10:17 AM #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!
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19-04-2021, 10:39 AM #5
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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19-04-2021, 10:52 AM #6
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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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19-04-2021, 3:46 PM #7
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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.......
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19-04-2021, 7:14 PM #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
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25-04-2021, 2:58 AM #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 !!!!!
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25-04-2021, 5:12 AM #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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