Our Line of Descent from William the Conqueror
by Bill Diederich

Every human being has ancestors, the number of which doubles with each preceding generation. Since there are approximately 30 years between generations, the number of ancestors grows rapidly as we go back in time. For example, if we could trace our ancestors back a thousand years in all lines, we would theoretically have 2,147,483,648 29 great-grandparents. This number is far in excess of the total world population of that time. Obviously, many ancestral lines stem ultimately from a relatively small group of people, and the lines cross and re-cross due to marriages between cousins.

Our most famous ancestor in the early years of the current millennium was Duke William II of Normandy, who invaded England on Thursday 28 September 1066 and defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings two weeks later on Saturday 14 October. William the Conqueror was then crowned King William I of England.

This article outlines the ancestry of William the Conqueror and describes the line of descent from him to us.

It was compiled largely from published sources. The information on William's ancestry is taken from William the Conqueror by D.C. Douglas. The information about William's descendants is taken from A History of Monmouthshire by Joseph A. Bradney. The information about Edward Nicholas of Llangynog and his descendants is based on my original research into Welsh and Pennsylvania records.

Read the article here: Our Line of Descent from William the Conqueror

Stories of the Families
by Joseph V. Phillips

This is the story of more than 200 families connected to the Slane, Elliott, Souther, Clark, Gentry, Taylor, Allison, Carr and many other related families whom I have researched over the past 50 years. It will be a story of the human side of these hardy, heroic, sometimes saintly, sometimes devilish folks, our grandparents, who have come down through history since Adam and Eve. We’ll spin true yarns about some of these ancestors. It’s a pity we can’t tell the stories of them all.

This book will be illustrated with many photographs of places and people directly involved with our genealogy, including tombstones, farms, ranches, castles, fortresses, rivers, multiple great grandfathers and grandmothers, and maps charting their march through history.

Read the book here: Stories of the Families