(06-28-2023, 01:00 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: I never knew or suspected my family's Scots and Irish roots until I did the family tree on Ancestry.com. I dug deep down and when I got to "Ragnar the Boneless" a Viking Berserker from around 800 AD I felt I had gone too far, plus I couldn't pronounce the Viking names.
Now I'm happy with finding the first generation that left the old country. Plus I discovered that one of the earliest ancestors on my mother's side was one of the founders of James Town that was a privateer on the side. On my father's tree are two that came off the Mayflower. As much work as they did on my dad's family tree back to Germany, they missed the Mayflower connection that was through a family from whom my grandfather got his middle name. Plus many who were in the Revolutionary War. Can't find much on the Civil War, but I'm sure Mom's side was involved in that one as they were slave owners up to that time.
Well hey there, cuz! I've got paper-trails Ragnar Lodbrok on both sides - through Ivar the Boneless on one, and through Bjorn Ironside on the other. Also Charles Martel - and therefore Charlemagne - Boudicca, William the Bastard, Odin, and apparently Jesus Christ, among others. I don't really put a lot of stock in that, though. After you get so far back, there isn't really a paper trail to follow, so I suspect most of that is fanciful and just made-up to fill someone's family tree out. Boudicca, for example - there are two different stories on how she died, and no record at all of what became of her daughters... so how in the hell would anyone be able to connect her to their family tree through a paper trail if there is no paper trail there to follow?
The paper trail to Jesus Christ reads like a Dan Brown novel, and I suspect that's where it really came from. BUT - my DNA DOES match to some Merovingian burials from the 6th century or so, so who the hell really knows?
I've also got a paper trail to a Baldwin Fulford, knight, who was beheaded on 9 Sepember 1461 in Devon for treason against King Edward IV. Apparently, he considered the Lancastrain Henry VI as "rightful sovereign", and supported him against Edward when Eddie successfully usurped the crown. Some times, life can suck when you stick to your guns and maintain your principles. One story has him being beheaded in Bristol, and another says he was beheaded in the courtyard of his own estate at Great Fulford. Whether Great Fulford and Bristol are co-located, I know not, but it could also just be another example of a made-up paper trail.
Those paper trails are why I got into DNA analysis - the genes don't lie - but that's only good for 7-10 generations back before entire branches start dropping out of the DNA family tree. So, you may find some branches supportted by both a paper trail AND the DNA, SOME that are supported by one but not the other, and it's a fair bet that there are some that exist, but are supported by neither.
Life is a roll of the dice.
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