Making Royal Connections

 

As Americans, we’re very proud of our Revolutionary War ancestors who successfully fought to break away from the rule of King George III. A new country was born and its inhabitants vehemently rejected any identification with a monarchy. So, when it comes to genealogy, the desire by some to find a royal ancestor in one’s family tree after all that effort to escape royal bonds is a little ironic.

It has been estimated that approximately 150 million Americans today are descended from royalty. If someone tells you their great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparent was an earl, or a duchess or even a king or queen – that could definitely be true. BUT – as is always the case in genealogy, just saying it doesn’t make it so. Unless one has the documentation to prove it, it’s just a very nice story.

Much of my personal research over the years has been focused on identifying my Revolutionary War ancestors, Civil War ancestors, Republic of Texas ancestors and my Acadian ancestors. Taking the research across the pond was an intriguing idea, but not something I was ready to tackle. Until………..

My family and I have been volunteers at the Houston Museum of Natural Science for many years. While the museum highlights natural science, it also does a brilliant job of showcasing exhibits that preserve and educate about historic events from America and around the world.

 2015 marked the 800^th anniversary of the Magna Carta. HMNS was selected as one of the museums to host a surviving copy of the third revision of the document from 1217, which was signed by King Henry III, and is now permanently housed at the Hereford Cathedral in England. It was brought to Houston as part of a larger celebration of the anniversary. The following links provide some background information about that event and The Magna Carta.

https://www.themappamundi.co.uk/magna-carta/

https://www.houstoniamag.com/arts-and-culture/2014/02/the-magna-carta-comes-to-hmns-january-2014

https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/texas/article/Rarely-seen-copy-of-Magna-Carta-coming-to-Houston-4769041.php

I was very fortunate to be able to volunteer a lot of time in that exhibit. It was made up of several “rooms, each one dedicated to a different aspect of life in 1215. As visitors passed through each room, they viewed examples of daily life for commoners, nobility and royalty. Then visitors came to the room containing the Magna Carta, which was very closely guarded. When visitors came to the final area before exiting the exhibit, they were treated to a replica of shelves in the Chained Library at Hereford Cathedral and a large panel that identified all the barons who signed the Magna Carta in 1215. The panel also contained statistics about how many people in Texas and Houston were estimated to be descended from one or more of the barons. That information was furnished by a lineage group called the Magna Carta Dames and Barons and discussed people known as “Gateway Ancestors.” The Gateways are a very small group of early colonial immigrants who have been documented as descendants of European royalty, aristocracy or landed gentry. There were about 650 proven Gateway Ancestors in 2015. I didn’t follow up on this information right away. I really didn’t think I had a Gateway.

Eventually though, I sat down at my computer one night and did a search to find the group’s website. It was a well-organized space at the time (the website appears to currently be undergoing some renovations.) http://magnacharta.org/

There was a lot of information about the barons who signed the 1215 Magna Carta (or Charta, if you prefer – both are correct) and an alphabetical listing of all the known Gateway Ancestors. I started going through the list, looking for names that I had already confirmed as Daughters of the American Revolution ancestors, since those would have the best opportunities for traceable lineages prior to the Revolution. It was my son who spotted the one recognizable name first – John Throckmorton. I was shocked. I didn’t expect to find anything. My Revolutionary War ancestor is Job Throckmorton. I had my paper trail from myself back to him. But could I find a paper trail from Job to John?

I already knew from researching information for Job Throckmorton that there were many different Throckmorton lines in New England and Virginia. The chances of my line being a line from John T the immigrant were very slim. But I decided to take on the challenge of exploring Job’s ancestors, still not really thinking I would end up with a lineal (generation to generation) connection to John.

When I was done with all my searching, this is what I had:

From myself to Job Throckmorton, Revolutionary War patriot – a generation by generation paper trail consisting of vital records, census records, newspaper articles and obituaries, probate and land records,  personal letters and war records. All of this had been assembled prior to the hunt for a connection to John Throckmorton. I am Generation 1 on the lineage. Job is Generation 8.

My 3^rd great grandfather’s obituary from the Boone County Democrat. It notes his 1848 marriage to Elizabeth Throckmorton

Job was the son of

9. Job Throckmorton, proofs included marriage records, church records, land records, probate records and state archive records.

A copied page from the last will and testament of Job Throckmorton, died 1765

Job was the son of

10. Joseph Throckmorton, proofs included church records, state archive records and burial records.

Joseph was the son of

11. Job Throckmorton, proofs included church records, probate records, state archive records, burial records and history books mentioning specific early settlers of New Jersey.

Job was the son of

12. John Throckmorton, documented Gateway Ancestor. His biographical information had already been collected by several researchers who provided the generational links, one by one, to medieval royal connections. He was born in England in 1601 and sailed to the colonies in 1631.

Abstracts of colonial wills of New Jersey published in 1901. John Throckmorton (aka Throgmorton) had a will dated in 1690.

 Even with the great advantages of online research, much of the information needed for this effort had to be obtained the old-fashioned way – by writing a letter, sending a check and hoping something would be found that matched my search request. It was a slow process. Once I had confirmed my connection to John the Immigrant, I purchased three different sets of books that contained all the information regarding his royal ancestry. It's important to note that none of this happened quickly. I probably spent about nine months trying to gather everything for these 4 generations. I didn't always have time to spend on the project. I just worked on it when I could.

It was very exciting to see the proofs come to light. It gave me a huge sense of satisfaction to do the research myself and accomplish something in my genealogical work that I wasn’t even sure was possible.

Do you have a Royal Connection?  Anyone can do their own research. It takes time, patience (LOTS of patience), endless curiosity and careful recordkeeping as you go.  YOU CAN DO IT!

The next blog post will look at one of my more perplexing brick walls and how I figured it out.

Until next time,

Love, Live and Laugh each day to the fullest!

Stacy Sundgren, Farmgirl Sister #7112