Ancestor Surfing -- using Wikipedia to trace family lines back over 50 generations

"This is not only one man, this is the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns.
In him the start of populous states and rich republics,
Of him countless immortal lives with countless embodiments and enjoyments.
How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries?
(Who might you find you have come from yourself, if you could trace bck through the centuries)."
--Walt Whitman



If you are related to me, this is your genetic heritage.

If you are interested in genealogy, here's an example that might inspire you to use the Internet in new ways.

And anyone can benefit from scanning through the family lines linked to at the end of this page.  Those lines provide insight into the labyrinth of royal connections, through marriage and descent, in Europe in the Middle Ages.

Please check back frequently, I add new material here nearly every day.

Introduction

Following clues from pp. 83-87 of the Cary-Estes Genealogy book and using Wikipedia and The Peerage.com , and then getting more details from Ancestry.com and  My Ancestors and Relatives,  I was able to trace my family ancestry back more than 50 generations.

The crucial line was from Charles Fleming (1659-1717) to his father John (1627-1686) to his grandfather Alexander (1612-1668) to his great-grandfather John the Second Earl of Wigton (1589-1650) and his great-great-grandfather John First Earl of Wigton (1567-1619). That was clarified and confirmed by  My Ancestors and Relatives : "The cited information was published by Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998, held in Family History Library The author/originator was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." John the father of Charles and Alexander the grandfather of Charles were both born in Scotland and died in Virginia. (The Cary-Estes Genealogy had speculated that Charles was the son of John who was the son of Sir Thomas Fleming [instead of Alexander], a son of John the First Earl of Wigton, but only based on scattered references and family tradition.)

The line from Lord John Fleming, First Earl of Wigton, and his wife Lilas Graham leads back to King James IV of Scotland (1473-1513) reigned 1488-1513.

If you go to My Ancestors and Relatives and from the Name Index in the left column navigate to Fleming and then to John 1st Earl Wigton Fleming (b. 1567) and then click on Ancestor Pedigree Chart, you will see the image displayed below, with the ability to click on each of the names to see details about those individuals and navigate still further back through many different lines.

With political marriages among the royal families of Europe, those lines lead to ancestors who were kings of England and France, Holy Roman Emperors, Emperors of the Byzantine Empire, princes of Kiev/Muscovy, and Viking chieftains. The ancestors include William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, King John (of Robin Hood and Magna Carta fame), King Alfred the Great,  King Robert the Bruce of Scotland ("Braveheart"), half a dozen saints, as well as the House of Este in Italy (by a very different route than family tradition -- by way of the Cary family, rather than the Estes family). Another ancestor is King Clovis of France, who the novel The Da Vinci Code claimed was a descendant of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ :-), and whose great-grandfather, according to legend, was a sea-monster.

The most fascinating ancestor so far is Eleanor of Aquitaine (played by Katherine Hepburn in the movie The Lion in Winter), mother of King Richard I the Lion-hearted and King John I.  The movie didn't mention that before her son Richard went on the Crusade, she led an army of Crusaders, purportedly dressing up her ladies-in-waiting as Amazons.

The longest line so far goes back 55 generations to Rome around 350 A.D., to an ancestor (Flavius Afrius Syagrius) who served as proconsul of Africa, prefect of Rome, and consul (in 382). According to Wikipedia: his is "the earliest known ancestor of any of the royal houses of Europe. For the proposed genealogical link, see descent of Elizabeth II from the Romans." (Her line, as listed there, is identical to our for the first 33 generations, through King Edward III).

For many generations, both the father and mother are not only known, but also have entries in Wikipedia, which links to their parents.  And for nobles from Scotland and England when Wikipedia runs out of information, in many cases,  generations show up in The Peerage.com http://www.thepeerage.com

Keep in mind that, except in cases of people who are related to one another marrying each other, the number of your ancestors doubles with each generation.  That would mean that you could have as many as a quadrillion ancestors in 550 AD.  But there were only about two hundred million people alive at that time.  You might conclude that just about everybody alive today is descended from just about everybody who was alive back then.  But just a few hundred years ago, most people lived in rural areas, with little travel and little contact with people in other towns, much less other countries. It was common for a family to stay in the same small geographic area for many generations (except when driven away by catastrophe, such as war, plague, and famine).  That meant lots of inter-marriage, with everybody in a town being cousins to one another.  (From a biological viewpoint, war, plague, and famine may have been "necessary" to change/expand the gene pool and increase the likelihood that mankind would survive). In any case, very few people can trace their ancestry back four or five generations, much less 50.

I have followed a few of the lines of descent as far back as I could trace.  But literally thousands of other lines are possible.  You can surf through those others by using the Wikipedia links in the following documents. At the very least, this should give you a new and personal appreciation for history.

(Making a break-through like that in tracing my ancestry on the Web reminded me of the experience of Paul Atreus ("Muad-Dib") in the novel "Dune." Thanks to the effects of the "spice" and of his special genes, he suddenly senses the presence both individually and collectively of all his ancestors back for thousands of years.)

The Abraham Effect: Be Careful, Be Proud -- the Future of the Human Race Depends on You

By doubling each generation, counting backwards, 1000 years ago, about 36 generations ago, you had nearly 69 billion ancestors (that's 2 to the power of 36).  At that time, there were only about 50 million people alive in Europe.  So along the way, there was lots of intermarriage, and, basically, everyone of European descent alive today is a cousin of everyone else, and probably in multiple ways.

That means that there were people alive in Europe  a thousand years ago who were the ancestors of everyone of European descent who is alive today.  In fact, there were probably hundreds, no thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of people alive a thousand years ago who became the ancestors of everyone of European descent alive today.

Let's flip that concept and take into account that people are much more mobile today than they were a thousand years ago.  Let's look ahead a thousand years.  In the year 3000, every human being alive on Earth (if the human race survives that long) will be a descendant of people who are alive today, and not just of one person alive today.  No, odds are they will be descendants of hundreds, thousands, even millions of people who are alive today.  In other words, if you are a parent or could become one, there's a reasonable chance that everyone alive a thousand years from now will have genes that passed through you.  That is an awesome responsibility.  Be careful. Be proud.  The future of the human race depends on you.


 

Special "Collections" to Highlight Famous and Royal Ancestors (links take you to the complete family line leading from that person to today)

The Shakespeare Collection (ancestors with connections to Shakespeare's plays): The Crusader Collection (ancestors who participated in the Crusades): The Dante Collection (ancestors mentioned in the Divine Comedy): The Saint Collection (ancestors who were saints) Kings of England (who were ancestors) Kings of Scotland (who were ancestors) Kings of Wales Kings of Dublin Kings of France (who were ancestors) Kings of Aragon and Navarre (AKA Pamplona) and Counts of Barcelona (in Spain) Princes of Kiev Kings of Sweden Holy Roman Emperors Byzantine Emperors The Cities Collection: The Movie Collection: My starting point for numbering generations is Adela (my first grandchild).  If you are a relative of mine, check your generation number (I'm in generation 3).  Then, as far as we can determine, you are a direct descendant of (have the genes of)  everyone in these lists with a higher generation number than yours.

Family lines. All have links to Wikipedia and thepeerage.com  I'm in the process of adding quotes from Wikipedia and thepeerage.com and also adding more lines. The number refers to the generation number in which this family first appears; the individual name is the mother in that generation, whose ancestors we then follow.

Lines finished:

Lines nearly finished, but still in process:

Interesting lines yet to be explored:

18 Lilias Ruthven md. David Drummond
21 Elene Douglas md. William Graham (see ancestry.com)
20 Isabel Campbell md. William Drummond, Master of Drummond
21 Lindsay, Lady Elizabeth Lindsay md. John Drummond
20 Hay, Margaret Hay
21 Erskine, Christian Erskine
22 Mariot Murray md. Sir Malcolm Drummond
25 Elizabeth Sinclair md. Sir John Drummond
28 Margaret Graham md. Sir Malcolm Drummond
26 Mary Montifex md. Sir John Drummond
31 Ada of Lennox
23 Stewart, Gille Stewart
25 Capet, Isabella of France
26 Castille, Eleanor of Castille
27 Provence, Eleanor of Provence
28 Angouleme, Isabella of Angouleme
31 Maine, Eremburga of La Fleche
32 Monfort, Bertrade de Monfort
33 Anjou, Ermengarde of Anjou (overlapping, we're descended from William IX Duke of Aquitaine by his marriage to Ermengarde and also by his marriage to Hildegarde of Burgundy -- that line
29 Chester, Maud of Chester
30 Warenne, Ada of Warenne
31 Huntingdon, Maud Countess of Huntingdon
32 Wessex, Saint Margaret
26 Carick, Marjorie Countess of Carrick
30 Albemarle, Euphemia
26 Luxembourg,Philippa of Luxembourg
27 Holland, Adelaide of Holland
29 Guise, Adela of Guise
25 Graham, Margaret Graham
26 Stewart, Elena Stewart
26 Marguerite of Anjou and Maine (married Charles of Valois)
28 Lennox, Ada of Lennox
28 Chester, Mabel of Chester
29 Harouet, Mathilda de St. Hilary du Harouet
30 Louvain, Adeliza de Louvain
31 Bigod, Maude le Bigod
21 Gelders, Mary of Guelders
25 Isabella of Mar
25 Dunbar, Cecilia
26 Bute, Jean
28 Mar, Alesta
22 Saxe-Wittenberg, Barbara
24 Meissen, Elisabeth of Meissen
23 FitzAlan, Alice FitzAlan
25 La Zouche, Maude De La Zouche
31 Dunkeld, Matilda of Scotland
32 Capel, Adela Capet
34 Brittany, Judith of Rennes
43 Bavaria, Judith of Bavaria
45 Laon, Bertrada of Laon
26 Marguerite of Anjou and Maine
28 Marguerite of Provence
29 Blanche of Castgile
30 Isabelle of Hainaut
31 Adela of Champagne
32 Adelaide of Savoy
33 Bertha of Holland
33 Piroska of Hungary md. Emperor John II Komnenos
35 Constance of Arles
36 Adele of Aquitaine
37 Hedwige of Saxony
38 Beatrice of Vermandois
39 Toda Azarez wife of King Sancho I of Pamplona
28 Adelaide of Burgundy
28 Violant or Yolanda, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary, wife of James I of Aragon
30 Sancha of Castile, wife of Alfonso II of Aragon
30 Marie of Boulogne (King Stephen)
31 Irene Angelina (Eastern Roman Emperors)
32 Petronila of Aragon md. Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona
32 Beatrice I Countess of Burgundy
33 Agnes of Germany (Holy Roman Emperors)
33 Wilfhild
35 Chuniza of Altdorf
35 Rozala of Lombardy
42 Ermentrude of Orleans
29 Marie of Champagne (granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine)

Results of my first adventures in Ancestor Surfing (not as complete or systematic as the lines listed above):

Please let me know what you discover in your own ancestor surfing; or if you find typos or other errors here, so I can correct them. seltzer@samizdat.com

Cary-Estes Genealogy by May Folk Weeb and Patrick Mann Estes

Cary-Estes-Moore Genealogy by Helen Estes Seltzer

This site is published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. 617-469-2269 seltzer@samizdat.com

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