A Trip Through Time

This last couple of weeks, I've been doing a bit of time-traveling, though not in the sci-fi sense.

Long, long ago--after the popularity of the TV mini-series Roots inspired millions to investigate their ancestry--I had a pretty good start on my family tree. I knew there were Scots, being descended from the Bruces, and possibly some English nobility, along with French-Canadians, Germans, Irish, Welch and Dutch mixed in, according to my mom.

But I was most intrigued by an old family legend from my father's side that a branch of our family was Native American from one of the Algonquin tribes of the New England/eastern Canada area.

As I started digging, I found my mom was right on many counts, but what I didn't find were the illusive Native Americans, though they might be there and just disguised under their given English or French-Canadian names. 

I took great pride in my accomplishment of tracing my family back to the 1700s. The 1700s! Wow. And I did it all via scouring census and other old handwritten records--many captured on microfiche (remember that?)--and only available in library archives or other official sources. The internet wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's eye at that time.

In the last month, I've had a renewed interest in my family tree. A big reason for that is I have a DNA test in process. I'm still hunting for those Native Americans roots! But out of curiosity, I started frogging around with Ancestry.com's family tree app.

Within just a few hours time, I had some pretty boggling results!

My forebearers include scores of colonists in the Massachussetts area, a sea captain, a major general, one greatgreatgreatgreat born on a voyage to the New World and given the name of Seaborn, and a branch of Deweys who apparently produced the famous Admiral.

But it's when my bloodlines skipped back across the pond to Europe that things really got interesting.

I was expecting a few exciting discoveries back-tracing the Bruce line, but that line went cold in the early 1600s and I wasn't able to link it back to Scotland to find the proof of my connections to King Robert the Bruce. Though I did have one big surprise in turning up a Bruce line on a completely unexpected branch of my family tree--my father's side! And possibly a third occurrence on another limb under the spelling Bruse.

Statue of Oliver Cromwell
 DepositPhotos

It was actually my mother's paternal side that turned up ancestral gold. I discovered I'm descended from the Cromwells. As in Sir Oliver Cromwell. And the Cromwells, being who they were, have left quite a trail of breadcrumbs to follow back through the centuries. Wayyyy back through the centuries.

The 1700s? Ha. I've now tracked branches of my family back in time to the 400s! Over 1,600 years ago.

My digging to date has revealed I have half a dozen kings, multiple dukes, barons, counts and lords, several knights, a lord mayor of London...and two saints (that was unexpected!)...as my predecessors. It's a twisting path that weaves through the histories of England, Wales and France--where at one point two members of French and English royalty were married.

But what may be my most exciting discovery of all surrounds one of the very oldest records of that line, which shows that my "47th great-grandfather" (according to Ancestry.com) may have been a Welch-born Knight of the Round Table during Uther Pendragon's time. According to some accounts, he later rebelled against King Arthur.

His name was Caradoc Freichfas, sometimes also shown as Vreichvras which is the more ancient Welch version and means "Strongarm." I can't be certain yet, because things get very muddy in the ancient past where family names are concerned. They don't follow more modern conventions, and facts and legends are co-mingled and might or might not speak of people who actually existed.

But what I do know is that my sainted ancestor, Saint Amaethlu was born in Wales circa 520, and he did indeed have "ap Caradoc" after his name. In that century, "ap" is the designation for "son of." At least one ancestral record reference identifies the "ap Caradoc" specifically as Caradoc Freichfas.

My research turned up that Caradoc was born circa 500 in Wales, so the dates and locations mesh for them being father and son. I also discovered mentions that Caradoc was a king himself and reportedly founded the line of the Kings of Gwent, and is supposedly depicted in an old painting showing a few select knights in the presence of the Holy Grail (you can see the image of this painting in the bolded Caradoc Freichfas link above).

If I can crosscheck the information I've found and verify he was indeed the father of my last recorded ancestor, Saint Amaethlu (it's looking very good, so far), the trail of that particular bloodline will end with Caradoc's father, designated as "Enynny (also Yrnyr, born ferch Synfarch.)" born in 476. (See what I mean about the confusion of family names?)

There the trail goes cold, at least for now.

My DNA test isn't going to tell me who my specific ancestors were, but I now expect it's going to reflect a lot more Welch and French lineage than I ever anticipated. Of course, this is just one limb in a very large tree, so I may have quite a few other surprises ahead.

And I'll be more than intrigued to find out if that Native American DNA turns up after all. I'll let you know the results in a future blog.

Have a great week.