Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Beware The Ides Of March...

Whoa, Nelly. What a day. I had an audit that took the better part of the day. It went well, but it still causes a little stress in the prep for it. I am a bit tired.

I got home early from my choir rehearsal tonight which was really nice. I got to play around for a while on my genealogical search. So far, I have traced the British side of my family to 1760, which is pretty cool. I am finding that the family name is actually one of the oldest families in England with the name actually being found in Templar Records as early as 1066! I am totally surprised and see that there will be lots to uncover in my search. I have quite a history to put together! It turns out that the family name figures prominently in Lancashire, (Lancaster) which was one of the two Houses in the War of the Roses. Here is the Rose of Lancaster, which is red. The House of York is white.
The ironic thing is, that within the past year, my dear friend got me hooked on English history. The Plantagenet, Tudors, and the War of the Roses. I have been totally enthralled by it. It is amazing how political everything was around the royal courts and throughout Europe. It was only recently that I learned that the daughter of Queen Isabella of Spain (who funded Christopher Columbus' expedition) was the mother of the first wife of King Henry VIII.

My genealogical search has been so fascinating. I had to upgrade my software recently and received a 90 free trial with Ancestry. They have upgraded their system so much and have made it so much easier than when I started about 10 years ago, when nothing was cataloged. Back then I literally had to spend hours going page by page through census records. So if you are curious about your own family's history, Ancestry.com is fabulous. Also, your local LDS Family History Center can be a treasure trove of information.

Happy searching!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

My DH is really big into family history. I think it is probably because he is related to someone famous. I was contacted a couple of years ago by a distant cousin in Sweden, that was really interesting. He is coming to the US to visit in the fall.

Patti said...

Hi Beth,

Thank you for your comment!

It is pretty cool to find that kind of contact with a distant relative. I actually found one of my third cousins from the Dutch side of my family on Facebook. We have spoken on the phone a couple of times and talk on FB. It is kind of surreal. :)

Pam said...

That is so cool that you have been able to trace your family back so far. I love reading books that take place during that time. My neighbor and I call them "the Queen books".

Pam said...

That is so cool that you have been able to trace your family history back so far. I love reading books that take place during that time period. My nieghbor and I called them "the Queen books" and we are both totally in love with them. To find that you are related to the Lancastrian line is neat.

They call me Estatez... said...

I'm reading the Sunne and Splendour right now which is a historical fiction piece about the War of the Roses. It is by Sharon Kay Penman. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it! I've also read two other books by her which are great, When Christ and His Saints Slept (read it first) and then Time and Chance.

Laurie