Found Anyone Famous

[pteverett001]

My favourite is my Great x24 Grandfather: William Marshal, reputedly the greatest knight that ever lived, who rose from obscurity to serve four kings and become one of the most powerful men in Europe, tournament legend, eventually appointed a Regent of England, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and bacame a Knight Templar on his deathbed, and is buried in the Temple Church in London, and clearly was quite a bloke! He had ten children and I am descended (as no doubt are many thousands) from his daughter Eva who married William de Braose, through my maternal great Grandmother's line.
Paul

[JillJ]

Hi Paul,

You and I must be related because I'm one of the thousands who follow the same line.  William Marshal was my 25 x g. grandfather.

Jill

[pteverett001]

Hi Cousin Jill, pleased to meet you 

Paul

[JillJ]

Pleased to meet you too cousin Paul!  What an illustrious ancestor we share;  I've just finished reading "The Greatest Traitor; the life of Sir Roger Mortimer Ruler of England 1327-1330" by Ian Mortimer.  He refers to William:


......William Marshal, the greatest knight in Christendom.  His name was spoken everywhere with a sense of awe.  He had won success in every tournament he had entered and, when confronted by his adveersaries at court, had challenged them all to single combat.  None had dared face him.

Jill

[pteverett001]

Isnt it great to read these things feeling some small connection. I have just finished reading The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick.

Sorry all for the brief hijack of the thread.

Paul

[JillJ]

Yes it is great, even though I tend to read with a notebook alongside me!  When you find famous ancestors like these you also discover a mountain of books!  Alison Weir's 'Isabella', Ian Mortimer's 'Edward III', Alison Weir's 'Kathryn' are other recent reads of mine and I'm related to all of them!

My apologies too for the thread hijack but it isn't every day you meet a new cousin!

Jill

[Braindead]

My Great great grandfather, Count Michel de Bartholomey was Russian Ambassador to the USA in the early 1880s.

[GMac78]

error

[Cheryl.]

Its amazing that I am distantly related to The Kray Twins of all people.

Me too and my Gt Gt Grandfather was a pretty famous footballer of his days