Week 25
The theme for Week 25 is "Earliest." Some ways that you might interpret this would be the earliest ancestor you've identified or the earliest document you've found. Maybe the earliest ancestor in a specific location.
Last week, I brought down the house with my letter to my grandfather. That was not my intention in the slightest. I made my family, friends on Wikitree, genealogy people on Twitter and perfect strangers on the street cry. One lady even said that maybe my grandfather was writing through me. It's possible. You never know. I had a hard time writing it to be honest and I've written sad parts of my stories before. Perhaps it's because last week hit a little too close to home. In any case, I'm glad people enjoyed it. Now for something completely different!
Week 25 has to do with the earliest. I think we can have some fun with this. When I began researching in 2006, my tree on Ancestry automatically added a branch going back to 1000 AD. It was to this guy named Grimbaldus du Bacon. For years I thought that was strange and a bit dubious. I hadn't had a chance to verify it until 2017. And wouldn't you know it? It was an unsubstantiated claim. I wasn't upset at losing the branch. It took a good fifteen minutes to clear that mess up.
Since then, I've always been a little shy about dealing with anything pre-1600. Could you blame me?
What happened was I asked on Geni about whether or not we could find information about my ancestor James Frothingham's wife, Phebe. I had a Phebe Southwick on my tree and originally she was the link to Grimbaldus du Bacon who lived 1000 years ago. Turns out that there were two Phebe Southwicks. One who WAS married to James and the other who wasn't and was connected to Grimbaldus. My friend, Erica tried explaining to me how this was relatively impossible because of various records she found. She said sorry and I said it was no big deal. I took a chainsaw to the tree and chopped it off.
Months later, I came across a potential gateway ancestor. For those who don't know, a gateway ancestor is a genealogical term which means that when you're researching a family tree you discover that one of your ancestors is descended from royalty, the aristocracy, or landed gentry. Usually in the United Kingdom. Though, it could easily apply to places like France, Germany and even Italy.
I was surfing Wikitree and found that Anne Derehaugh was considered to be a gateway ancestor. I checked my connection to her using the connection finder and saw that she was my 13th great-grandmother through my maternal grandmother's paternal side. This made a little bit of sense because Austin Felker's line does go to the UK eventually. Eventually, I learned that there was much more to it than that.
I saw that her line went back to a whopping six Magna Carta surety barons. Surety barons were people who signed the Magna Carta in 1215 AD and granted certain rights to people as agreed to by King John of England. It was one of the world's first Constitutions.
Anne was featured in Anderson's Great Puritan Migration Begins book as she arrived in Massachusetts Bay during that time period (1620-1640). That was only the beginning. I had to learn more about her and if she really WAS descended from six surety barons.
I wasn't going to care either way. It's cool to have a connection like that. But, think about it this way. A gateway ancestor lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago. A lot of people are probably descended from the same person. You can say you have royal blood of you want. But, the fact is that you're still one of millions alive today who could have a connection to this person. Is it cool? Yes. But, it's not the be all end all of existence.
I once again called on my friend, Erica to help me find out if Anne Derehaugh was indeed a gateway ancestor. I didn't want to get bit again. She knew this. I also asked for help in Wikitree's g2g forum. Was I paranoid? Eh, maybe a little. I prefer to think of it as "cautious optimism".
Erica helped me confirmed that she was indeed really a confirmed descendant of six surety barons because of these documents:
She was noted in this book: http://amzn.com/1461045207 The book is called "Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families - New Greatly Expanded 2011 Edition, Vols. 1, 2, 3 & 4" and is a modest 171 US dollars on Amazon. I ummm....don't think Amazon Prime can shave off the price here.
But, that's okay. She's noted in several other sources as being a descendant. Some of these include:
Battle, Robert. English Ancestry of Anne (Derehaugh) Stratton of Salem, Massachusetts. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 155 (2001): 367-390 and 156 (2002): 39-61.
Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to England: Birth date abt. 1606, Shotley, Suffolk; Living 19 Jul 1641 at Salem [Lechford 427], but "absent" on 8 Jul 1643 [STR 1:119], and probably dead by about 1645 when Edward Gibbons sold his house in Salem [ELR 1:89]
Her mother, Mary Wright, has even more sources which confirm her daughter's stance as a surety baron. Countless other sources appeared and confirmed this. It was definitely good news! I wasn't sure at first. You can never be too sure. Even with sources. Sometimes they can be faulty. It turns out that it wasn't the case this time.
In the end, I have connection to these surety barons:
Robert de Roos 27th great-grandfather.
William d'Aubigny 28th great-grandfather.
Gilbert de Clare 26th great-grandfather.
Richard de Clare 27th great-grandfather.
John de Lacy 26th great-grandfather.
Saher de Quincy 28th great-grandfather.
That's pretty decent. But, you have to be careful when looking up things pre-1600. You have to verify, verify and verify. It's like playing telephone over the course of centuries. Sometimes the messages get messed up and you'll never know which way is up. I think I got lucky here. Anne Derehaugh was indeed a descendant of a surety baron and I think I have more so-called "gateway ancestors". They just need to be proven.
For now, I guess, the earliest ancestors with records I found are these guys up there who lived in the 1100s, hundreds of years before I was even born. That's astonishing to think about. But, when you deal with genealogy going back that far, again you need to be very careful and know your stuff. Is it truth or fiction? There's only one way to find out. Do research and hope for the best. Maybe enlist the help of someone better qualified to answer any questions you might have. It couldn't hurt.
See you next time! And I promise maybe I won't be so hesitant about pre-1600 genealogy!
Edit on September 16th, 2023: It turned out that I am not connected to these surety barons. Sigh...Ah well.
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