MaoEG

Here's your mid-week post.

Medieval-and-on European Genealogy (MaoEG) is a great hobby of mine, especially finding houses. The unofficial genealogical definition of house is a group of people including and only including a person and all those who trace legitimate patrilineal or matrilineal descent to them. I will name houses by their common names, and in inventing my own give the place of birth or place of rule for their founder. Here I'm going to list some important ones.

And by important, I don't mean impact on history, but how many members they had. That's why you won't see the commonly known ones.

Have any with more people? Comment or contact.

Here's some things to know:

1. The founder is the person furthest tracable back. The MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor) is the person from whom all current members descend. An ancient founder tells you that the house has been important for centuries; an ancient MRCA tells you that the house probably has members all over the place, as it dosen't just consist of a bunch of extinct branches.
2. The head is the person most senior descended from the founder via primogeniture.
3. Patrilineal means in the male-line, no female interuptions. Matrilineal means the oppisite.
4. And I hate branches that are called houses.

Patrilineal
House of Wettin
Founder: Dietrich I von Wettin, 10th Century, 1st generation (duh)
MRCA: Frederick II, Elector of Saxony, 1412 -- 1464, 16th generation
Head: Michael, Prince of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, 1946 --, 33rd generation

If you look at the names, it looks German right away. Indeed, probably the supermajority of members were German. However, it has some non-Germans too: just look at Queen Elizabeth of the UK. She traces back through Queen Victoria's husband Albert, who was German (duh).

House of Este
Founder: Adalbert of Mainz, 9th/10th Century
MRCA: Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 1497 -- 1546, 20th generation
Head: Person Confidential, 31st generation

Known more often as the House of Welf, it's founder was Italian, it's MRCA was German, and it has members from across the map. In Britain it was known as the House of Hanover.

It's late MRCA dosen't mean there was a 20-generation line that didn't go anywhere; there were in fact two great branches from 5th generation on, of Welf and of Italian Este, but the Italian Este branch died out 1803.

House of Oldenburg
Founder: Egilmar I, Count of Lerigau, 11th century
MRCA: Frederick I of Denmark and Norway, 1471 -- 1533, 13th generation
Head: Christoph, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein, 1949 --, 27th generation

The early MRCA tells you already that this is a diverse house. It has two main branches: the main Glücksburg branch from the MRCA's older son, and the Holstein-Gottorp branch from his younger son. The Glücksburgs have produced Danish, Norwegian, and Greek monarchs, the consorts of the rulers of UK and Spain (the former meaning that the next king will be Glücksburg), and the Holstein-Gottorps have produced czars in Russia (the Romanovs weren't really Romanovs).

House of Capet
Founder: Robert II, Count of Worms, 770 -- 807
MRCA: Robert II of France, 972 -- 1031, 7th generation
Head: Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, 1974 --, 37th generation

There is a confusion as to the ancestry of Robert of Hesbaye, so I list him here as founder, though there are sources denoting parentage.

As 39 generations have proved, you can't extinguish the House of Capet. It has two main branches, Bourbon and Burgundy, and both are famous throughout history. Need I say more?

Charlemagneering
Charlemagne, as one of the most prominent figures of the dark ages, is the de facto standard dream-ancestor; in other words, you want to trace to him.

As it turns out, the MRCAs of all of these houses trace to him.

To Frederick II, Elector of Saxony:

1. Charlemagne, 742 -- 814, m. Hildegard of Vinzgouw
2. Louis I of France, 778 -- 840, m. Judith of Bavaria
3. Gisela of France, 9th century, m. Eberhard of Friuli
4. Ingeltrued of Friuli, 9th century, m. Henry of Franconia
5. Hedwiga of Franconia, 9th century, m. Otto I of Saxony
6. Henry I of Germany, 876 -- 936, m. Matilda of Ringelheim
7. Otto I of Germany, 912 -- 973, m. Edith of Wessex
8. Liutgarde, 10th century, m. Conrad, Duke of Lorraine
9. Otto I of Carinthia, 10th century, m. Judith of Bavaria
10. Henry of Speyer, 10th century, m. Adelaide of Alsace
11. Conrad II of Germany, 990 -- 1039, m. Gisela of Swabia
12. Henry III of Germany, 1017 -- 1056, m. Agnes of Poitou
13. Henry IV of Germany, 1050 -- 1106, m. Bertha of Savoy
14. Agnes of Germany, 1072 -- 1143, m. Frederick I of Swabia
15. Frederick II of Swabia, 1090 -- 1147, m. Judith of Bavaria
16. Frederick I of Germany, 1122 -- 1190, m. Beatrice I of Burgundy
17. Henry VI of Germany, 1165 -- 1197, m. Constance of Sicily
18. Frederick II of Germany, 1194 -- 1250, m. Isabella of England
19. Margaret of Sicily, 1241 -- 1270, m. Albert II of Meissen
20. Frederick I of Meissen, 1252 -- 1323, m. Elizabeth of Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk
21. Frederick II of Meissen, 1310 -- 1349

Ernest I's wife was actually a 6-greats granddaughter of Frederick II:

21. Frederick II of Meissen, 1310 -- 1349, m. Mathilde of Bavaria
22. Elisabeth of Meissen, 1329 -- 1375, m. Frederick V of Nuremburg
23. Elisabeth of Nuremburg, 1358 -- 1411, m. Rupert II of the Rhine
24. Margaret of the Palatinate, 1376 -- 1434, m. Charles II of Lorraine
25. Catherine of Lorraine, 1407 -- 1439, m. Jacob of Baden
26. Margarete of Baden, 1431 -- 1457, m. Albert III of Brandenburg
27. John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg, 1455 -- 1499, m. Margaret of Thuringia
28. Ursula of Brandenburg, 1488 -- 1510, m. Henry V of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
29. Sophie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1508 -- 1541, m. Ernest I of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Frederick I is also descended from Frederick II:

21. Frederick II of Meissen, 1310 -- 1349, m. Mathilde of Bavaria
22. Elisabeth of Meissen, 1329 -- 1375, m. Frederick V of Nuremburg
23. Frederick I of Brandenburg, 1371 -- 1440, m. Elisabeth of Bavaria
24. John of Brandenburg, 1406 -- 1464, m. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg
25. Dorothea of Brandenburg, 1430 -- 1495, m. Christian I of Denmark
26. Frederick I of Denmark, 1471 -- 1533

Robert II of France traces via Henry I of Germany:

6. Henry I of Germany, 876 -- 936, m. Matilda of Ringelheim
7. Hedwig of Saxony, 910 -- 965, m. Hugh the Great
8. Hugh of France, 939 -- 996, m. Adelaide of Aquitaine
9. Robert II of France, 972 -- 1031

Matrilineal lines next.

Positum Intitulō

This post is of multiple subjects, which is why it has no title.

Subject 1
I made it my goal to post once a week. I will do so every Sunday.

Subject 2
Last post I said that I would tell you about the papers. They included:

• A photocopy of a family record, showing the ancestors of my grandfather in two generations, including the names and BMD dates of Cora's parents. For those that don't know, BMD stands for birth-marriage-death, and Cora's parents were until now a mystery.
• A discharge record of my great-grandfather Frank Brown
• A letter to ditto from his cousin
• A handwritten poem about Father Christmas by my great-great grandfather
• A ditto about a boy drowning by ditto.

This leads to more research I will do over the summer, when I get an ancestry.com account:

• Search for immigration papers of Cora's parents (they were Norwegian), and after that birth records.
• Find out about my great-grandfather's regiment
• Do more research on his ancestry

Who knows what I'll find -- that's the beauty of genealogy.

Subject 3

I said that I was doing Perl; now I'm learning C++. So far I've managed to do, hmm, 0 successful programs.

I'm working on it.

Efharistó!

Geneology

I just found a case full of old documents; my great-great grandfather was a poet! More will come.

A True Overview of My Genealogy.

A "True" Overview?

My last post on genealogy, labeled an Overview of My Genealogy, simply went the farthest back I have traced, through one line. First I'll start with a lovely pie chart of my ethnicity:

Yes, some who know me as having very pale skin will be surprised that I'm a quarter Mexican, but it's true, the extended family has a Mexican dinner every day-after-Christmas.

You can tell the four quarters are my four grandparents; the right side is my father, the left side is my mother. In a clockwise direction, it's PP (father of father), MP (mother of father), PM (father of mother), MM (mother of mother). I'll give the first letters of their names; S, J, I, and W.

Part 1: Scandinavian Side
S.'s father is named Sigfrid Hampus Svenson, and he went by his middle name. He was born to a Sven and Johanna in Malmö, Sweden, and his father died when he was still young. His mother was of course dragged down by having to raise six kids (Hampus was the eldest son). So Hampus eventually went to work in the cigar factory as a teenager.

By his late teens (16&17), he got into drinking, and more then once almost drowned, being too drunk to dogie-paddle. He was part of a gang of boys, and they always made mischief. Once a Salvation Army parade marched by, and the boys decided to take the flag away from the carrier. It was Hampus that attepmted it, but as he tried the flag-carrier said "You'll never take the flag away from me."

That seemed to change Hampus. He stopped drinking, stopped hanging out with the other ruffians. He started to wonder what that flag-carrier had that he didn't; facing up to a guy like him. Signs at the Salvation Army said things like "Come and be Saved," perhaps that was it. At the nearest church, they didn't even let him in (on account of a poor reputation for mischief), so he had to go to a further out church. That year he became a Christian, and immigrated to America (I have a ship's manifest showing him, of course. He also changed his last name).

It is because of that flag-bearer that our family is Christian.

Anyhow, he later missioned in India with his Norwegian-American wife, Cora, whose parentage I have yet to figure out. My grandfather was born there, and I still have some Indian hats of his up on a shelf in my room.

Of his father, Sven Svenson, I have yet to figure out a genealogy. Of his mother Johanna, however, I have found her parents to be Jonas Kastell and Albertina Ekelund, the former being a soldier living 1800-1880. I have yet to trace back further.

Part 2: Scottish Side
The parents of my grandmother, J, are Frank Brown and Jeanie Stewart. Both were born in Scotland and came to the USA.

Frank Brown was born in either 1885 or 1895; I have yet to figure out which. The former is the date I have always been told, though a 1930 USA census record as well as a 1901 Scotland census record seems to support the latter. Whatever the date, he fought in World War 1 as part of the British army before immigrating to Chicago in the 20s. I have yet to figure out if he married Jeanie in America or Scotland, but it was before 1925, when this picture was taken:

His parents are William Armour Brown and Margaret McNeill. I have yet to find Margaret's parents, though I am sure she has a brother John. There are three children of William's age living in the town of his birth in 1861, so I have yet to figure his parentage out (interestingly, one possibility is that his father was Irish. That'd be lovely). Here is a picture of William and Margaret, with Frank only five years old:

As for my grandmother's mother's side, her parents were Andrew Stewart and Jeanie McGilvary. Unlike the Browns, who had only one kid (I think), the Stewart side had a lot:

I have yet to figure out their parentages, though I know that Jeanie's mother's maiden name was "Bailey."

Here's two more photos of Frank and Jeanie, the former being him in the war:

Part 3: Mexican Side
My maternal grandfather, I, was conceived in Mexico and born in Chicago, the youngest son of Otilio Velazquez and Ramona Santillian. His father left him very young for Hollywood, for he was a screenwriter by profession (I only learned this recently from a second cousin once removed visiting). He must have specialized in Mexican romance, for there is a rejection letter owned by the said S.C.O.R. that says that at the time there was no market for such a genre.

There is a lovely miniature of the Tribune Tower that was made by Otilio, before he left. I'm too lazy to inquire, but I think he was arrested for doing some measurements.

As for his genealogy, we have names that go back to his grandparents, but the names are it besides a story that his father Andres Artiaga was a Mexican-American war general.

It is the same for his wife, Ramona – we go back to her grandparents, and her father was named Jesus!

Part 4: Welsh Side
My grandmother W is the one that went back to before the American Revolution – the fact that she isn't a daughter of immigrants like the other three helps, as America is the easiest place for genealogy. Thank you census!

Her parents are Jesse Mills and Chloe Davis. The Mills genealogy goes back three generations:

Elijah = Jane or Elizabeth, haven't figured out which
       |
       Jasper = Nancy Barrett, don't know her parentage
              |
              Jesse = Chloe Davis
                    | 
                    W

Not much; the fact that people other than the head were only recorded in the census from 1850 on doesn't help.

In fact, the pie chart at the beggining is incorect. The Mills side isn't Welsh; I have no idea what they are. The Welsh side is that of Chloe's father, the German of her mother.

Here's a nice family tree to sum it up:

Davis family


Unknown                   Rev. Malachi Jones = Mary
)--------------------------.                 |
Thomas Davis               Llewellyn Davis = Bridget
|                           "the Sawyer"   |
Llewellyn "the Hammerer"                   |
|                                          |
Magdalene Davis             =              Llewellyn
                            |
        Elizabeth Kennedy = Isaac Davis I
                          |
          Eliza Ritchey = Isaac Davis II
                        |
  Harriet Hockensmith = Isaac Davis III
                      |
                      Chloe Davis
                            
That's basically what we know about the Davis family. Reverand Malachi Jones was born circa 1651 in Wales, died 1729. In his lifetime he founded the Abington Presbyterian Church, built a graveyard, and was buried in it (well the last one was hopefully after he died).

Yes, Llewellyn and Magdalene Davis were first cousins once removed and they married, but hey, I'm not mutated! As for their son Isaac Davis I, he was six years old when George Washington's men camped at Valley Forge, the camp being less than a mile from the village of the same name where Isaac lived.

Part 5: German Side
Let's do another family tree:

Hans Hackenshmidt
|
Ulrich Georg Hackenshmidt = Ursula
,-------------------------'
Georg Nicomed Hackenshmidt
|
Johann Georg Hackensmidt
|
Konrad Hackenshmidt       Georg Shmidt
|       ,-----------------(
Jacob = Elizabeth Smith   John Smith
      |                   |
      Peter Hockersmith = Christina Smith
                        |
 Elizabeth Eppley   =   John Hockensmith
                    |
Isaac Davis III  =  Harriet Hockensmith
                 |
                 Chloe Davis

Now, Konrad Hackensmidt immigrated from Germany to America starting in Rotterdam, Holland and ending up in Frederick's County, Maryland. There is a bunch of stuff about him you can find, like this timeline and the text of his will.

His son Jacob, and Jacob's brother-in-law Sgt. John Smith, were both members of William Blair's Game Cock company.

Jacob's son Peter and John's daughter Christina married; they were 1st cousins.

The winter of 1899/1900 was one of the worst for the Davises. Both Isaac Davis III and three of him and Harriet's children died then. This knocked Harriet poor, having to resort to doing laundry for pay. There is a family legend that a relative came by and offered to raise my great-grandma Chloe and make it easier for Harriet. The answer was no, of course.

Here's a picture of Harriet and her family:

Here's some pictures of Chloe (the first at a shoe factory):

So there you have it – my genealogy. So why don't you research your own genealogy? Here's a suggestion: ask your parents for information (or grandparents if still alive). With as much information you can get, google search the names or go to http://www.familysearch.org/ for free stuff, and if you're willing to pay defiantly go to http://www.ancestry.com/.

Now of course, if you really are willing to pay go to the place where your ancestor lived.

Hu-hu-hu-hu that's all folks!

The Matrilineal House of Lara

If you scroll down to my post on lines of succession, you will find the definition of enatic to be thus:

Enatic primogeniture is just the opposite of agnatic primogeniture; it only allows females, and bans males.

Just read the definition of agnatic primogeniture and switch genders. I'll elaborate only in saying that the throne passes to the daughter, if none a sister, if none an aunt, if none an aunt's daughter, if none a great-aunt, and so on. Not even a son's daughter would be eligible.

The Matrilineal House of Lara is group of people who are matrilineal descendants (children of daughters of daughters of daughters) of Juana Núñez de Lara, or in English Joan Noonyez of Lara. Practically every European royal is descended from her, and a bunch of II monarchs: Maximillian II and Ferdinand II of Austria, Henry II of France, Catherine II of Russia, and a few boring Is and IVs in Victoria of Britain and Phillip IV of Spain, are descended from her in the female line.

The female line starts with a Spanish noble woman Juana herself, 1286–1351, who was a member of the Paternal House of Lara. It died out with the death of her brother 1315, leaving the family's wealth to Juana's son with the exact same name but for "Juan" instead of "Juana".

But who cares about her son? After all, the matriline traces through the three daughters she had besides. They were,

• Blanca (1311–1347), who died before Juana did,
• Maria (1315–1379), whose only daughter became a nun,
• Marguerite (1319–1373), who became a nun herself.

Okay. A dynasty sprung from these three daughters? It doesn't look like a matriline comes from any of them, unless nuns have children.

As it turns out, Blanca had two children before she died. The younger was a daughter, named Juana Manuel, who lived 1339–1381.

Through those three generations, the MHL (that's what I'm going to call the matrilineal house of Lara) rose through the ranks. I'll show you how through this family tree:

Berengaria                      Castilian Monarch

)-------.                       Member of MHL

Urraca  Ferdinand III

|       )-----------.

Diego   Alfonso X   |

|       )---------  |  ------------.

Teresa  Ferdinand   |              Sancho IV

|       |           |              |

Juana = Ferdinand   Manuel         Ferdinand IV

      |             |              |

      Blanche   =   John Manuel    Alfonso XI

                |                  |

                Juana Manuel   =   Henry II

Juana was born a great-great non-male-line granddaughter of a queen - something you would expect from any old noble. But when she married a male-line grandson of a king, it made her daughter part of the ruling dynasty (albeit in a distant branch). The situation wasn't worsened when Blanche also married a king's male-line grandson, putting her daughter into a junior branch of the dynasty. The MHL was at it's peak when Juana married a member of the senior branch of a dynasty: in fact, the king's eldest son. Technically Henry wasn't part of the dynasty at all, as he was illegitimate, but that didn't stop him from usurping the throne and becoming Henry II of Castile.

(By the way, back then Spain wasn't one country; Castile and Aragon united to form Spain through the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand, the investors in Columbus' expedition. Both were descended from Juana Núñez.)

Juana Manuel and Henry II had a son and daughter, Juan (John) and Leanor (Eleanor). John went on to become King of Castile. As usual for princesses, Eleanor (1363–1415) went on to marry some foreign guy; in this case, Charles III of Navarre (which was a little country stuck between modern Spain and France).

Eleanor and Charles had eight children, six of whom were daughters. Only four of their children survived to marriage, and only three ever had children. Those three were daughters. They were:

• Blanche (1387–1441), who married John II of Aragon (the other part of Spain)
• Beatrix (1392–1415), who married James II, Count of La Marche
• Isabella (1395–1435), who married John IV of Armagnac

From each of them sprung the Aragon, La Marche, and Armagnac branches of the MHL. I'll tell you their histories in 2-3-1 order.

The La Marche branch didn't last long. Beatrix and James had three daughters, and only one of them ever married. She, Eleanor, married in fact the brother of Isabella's husband, and among three children only one was a daughter. That daughter, Bonne, never married and didn't outlive her mother, who died 1464 along with the La Marche branch. Indeed, no person is alive today who can trace descent to Beatrix.

The Armagnac branch didn't have the same fate, as Henry IV of France descends from Isabella and John, and he has several descendants today. Isabella also had three daughters, but this time each of them had children. The eldest, Marie, had one daughter through her husband John II of Alençon, who married but had no children. The second, Eleanor, had one daughter as well, whose only daughter had no children, bringing the Armagnac branch to end in 1537. The third, Isabelle, produced three children, of whom only one was a daughter who grew up only to have a son. That son's only known descendants are those of Emmanuel of Crussol, 11th duke of Uzès.

Both the branches of La Marche and Armagnac have been dead for centuries. The Aragon branch, however, still exists today.

Blanche, the Aragon branch (also called main line) founder, became Queen of Navarre upon her father's death. (Cognatic primogeniture was used, she was the eldest daughter, and her brothers all died young. See my post on order of succession). She and John II of Aragon had three non-infant-dying children. They were:

• Charles (1421–1461)
• Blanche (1424–1464)
• Eleanor (1426–1479)

Upon Blanche Sr.'s death, Charles was made king, while his father John reigned de facto. Upon Charles' childless death, his sister Blanche Jr. got the title while John continued to exercise the power. Upon Blanche Jr.'s childless death, John became de jure king, and upon his death Eleanor became queen for only two weeks before her death.

Before she died, she had ten children through her husband Gaston IV, Count of Foix, those daughters who had children of their own listed here:

• Mary (1452–1467), married William VIII of Montferrat
• Margaret (1453–1486), married Francis II of Brittany
• Joan (1454–1476), married her mother's cousin John V of Armagnac
• Catherine (1455–1494), married her second cousin Gaston II of Foix-Candale

From them descend the Montferrat, Brittany, and Foix-Candale branches (Joan and John's only child died in infancy).

Giovanna of Montferrat
and a sister

Any member of the Montferrat branch hasn't been mentioned since 1522, so we can assume it's dead. It was formed by the marriage of Mary and William, which produced several daughters. Only one of them is known to have married, this being Giovanna to Ludovico II of Saluzzo. He and Giovanna had two daughters themselves, only one of them living past two: Margherita, who married twice but through neither husband had children. Her will is dated 1522, and with her death the main line of the MHL died out.

The Brittany branch didn't do so bad. Brittany was a powerful duchy, so Margaret and Francis' only daughter to marry, Anne (1477–1514), was Charles VIII of France's best choice for a bride. The two had no children, so the throne passed to Charles' father's second cousin, Louis XII, who also married Anne. The couple had two infancy-surviving children, Claude and Renée, both girls.

Claude (1499–1524) also married a king of France, Francis I, so we shall call her branch the Franco-Brittany branch. Claude and Francis had three children to survive until marriage: Henry, Madeleine, and Margaret. Madeleine never had children, and Margaret's only child was a son. Her death in 1574 made the Franco-Brittany branch extinct, though through her son we have the female-preference primogeniture heirs.

Anna was the ancestor
of the dukes of Savoy

The younger daughter of Anne of Brittany, Renée (1510–1575), did not marry a king like her mother and sister. Instead, she married the Duke of Ferrera, Ercole II, and had three daughters by him. Only one, Anna, ever married, and her two daughters died young, knocking the Este-Brittany branch and the Brittany branch as a whole extinct in 1607.

The Montferrat Branch, extinct 1522. The Brittany Branch, extinct 1607. When is the Foix-Candale branch extinct, 1692? As it turns out, members of it still live today, so I'm going to save all that new exciting stuff for the next post. While you wait, you can always look it this lovely little outline of what's been covered so far:

• The Trunk: Juana Núñez → Blanche de la Cerda → Juana Manuel → Eleanore of Castile
• Aragon Branch: Blanche I of Navarre → Eleanor of Navarre
• Montferrat Branch: Mary of Navarre → Giovanna of Montferrat → Margherita of Saluzzo, extinct after1522
• Brittany Branch: Margaret of Navarre → Anne of Brittany
• Franco-Brittany Branch: Claude of France → Margaret of France, extinct 1574
• Este-Brittany Branch: Renée of France → Anna of Este, extinct 1607
• Foix Candale Branch: I can't tell you yet!
• La Marche Branch: Beatrix → Eleanore → Bonne, extinct 1464
• Armagnac Branch: Isabella → Eleanor → Joan → Francoise, extinct 1537

An Overview of my Genealogy

I've been interested in genealogy ever since my grandmother told me about it. She, from whom I obviously inherit the interest, did a lot of research that eventually traced her back to the 1700s. I just got an www.ancestry.com account, and using it made contact with Ed Hockersmith, who himself had made contact with Günter W. Hackenschmidt, a German guy who had gone from my grandmother's ancestors back to 1590, all the way to:

Hans Hackenshimdt, father of:
|
Ulrich Georg Hackensmidt, 1590-?, father of:
|
Georg Nicomed Hackenshmidt, 1658-1702, father of:
|
Johann Georg Hackensmidt, 1683-?, father of:
|
Konrad Hackensmidt, 1718-1795, came to America, farthest back my grandmother went, father of:
|
Jacob Hockersmith, 1746-1818, father of:
|
Peter Hockersmith, ?-1834, father of:
|
John Hockensmith, 1805-1892, father of:
|
Harriet Hockensmith, 1854-1937, mother of:
|
Chloe Mills, 1892-1977, mother of:
|
My Grandmother, mother of:
|
My Mother, mother of:
|
Me. Duh!