Monday, July 11, 2011

ANCESTRY BRAGGADOCIO SAGA:

MY ANCESTRY

I don't mean to brag but my ancestry is extremely interesting and impressive. Skip this saga if you're bored, but I'll bet you'll find it fascinating and compelling. This pertains to: Donald Cooke Voth, Donald Voth and Don Voth.

My friend, Austin Clayton, God rest his soul, 
spent hundreds of hours on researching my ancestry.
He was a recluse and a genealogy nut. Every few days or so for years he would come to me with an exciting discovery. The interesting line is on my mother's side. As my genealogy became more interesting, he'd spend more time on mine than on his! I ended up with more than 2,000 people on my list. To print my family tree, so far, it would take 1208 pages!

Austin even had me take a saliva sample to verify certain lines via genealogical genetic testing. They do this using your DNA! I just took the simplest test which linked me strongly into my English and Scottish lineage. It cost $150. You could go up to a thousand dollars for a complete series! The company asked me for a blood sample. They said they wanted to use it for "source code."

The oldest on my charts is Euric, King of the Visigoths, born AD 415.  Although Austin said he had taken my lineage back well into BC, I never got any charts.

We had diagrams the size of wall-charts, delineating my descendancy from various famous, ancient and royal people. This one shows only from Unusit, King of the Picts (39th great, great grandfather) through many but not all of my English monarch ancestors. It's 20 pages.

Just to name drop a few:
My great, great, great, grandfather, Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham, the   
    inventor of Graham Flour.
I had four ancestors on the Mayflower: Francis Cooke, signatory of the Mayflower 
    Compact; also a father, mother and daughter who were picked up from a 
    shipwreck. The parents died on board.

Godgifu Mercia (Lady Godiva) and her husband:


Lorenzo "il Magnifico" de Medici:

(Notice a Bourbon King of France and a Stuart King of England!)

An English royal who won Staten Island, NYC in a card game with Charles I.
Joan Plantagenet (Joan of Arc).
A Brother of (Great Uncle) Jesus Christ! (This one really surprised me: an only 
    near-Eastern famous relative. PLUS, WHAT a find! Austin just casually 
    mentioned it one day. He never did give me a chart though. [There's a name for 
    the group of descendants of Jesus' brothers. Does anyone know it?])
Four saints: King Saint Louie IX of France, Saint Stephen I of Hungary, Saint 
    Margaret of Hungary and Saint Fernando of Castile.

Two Medici popes: (Popes could then be married.)

2 - Holy Roman Emperors: Charlemagne

and Maximillian I..
Five - Emperors of Byzantium.
Roman Emperor. (Austin just told me this one day, but I never heard who it was.)

Next, MY SCOTTISH MONARCH PROGENITORS.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Desposynoi" is the name for the blood relatives of Jesus. Although some Catholics believe in the absolute virginity of Mary, most references say there were four brothers and two sisters of Jesus: Jude, Joseph, James, Simon, Salome and Mary. If you are a descendant of one of these, you're a DESPOSYNOI! Genealogically speaking, you are a descendant of the Blessed Mary, Mother of Christ. Bless You!, Margaret H.

Don Voth said...

Margaret H., Thank you for the name of my group. It's all rather amazing to me.

Anonymous said...

I think you should research your Roman Emperor!

Don Voth said...

I would, but I don't know how to begin doing genealogy work. And first of all, I don't know who it is!!

Anonymous said...

Very interesting....thanks for sharing, Bob.

Don Voth said...

You're welcome!

Anonymous said...

Fascinating! Can't wait for next segment.

Don Voth said...

It'll be a duesy!