{In this third installment of my multi-part series, I offer additional clues in my quest to unravel the Mystery of John Knox of that Ilk and, ultimately, to uncover the secrets of my Scottish maternal lineage.} Begin the Beguine Every storyteller, whether a bard or barrister, is tasked with deciding where to start their story. The Knox family saga has multiple potential starting points, and … Continue reading The Knox Chronicles – Part III
{In this second installment of a multi-part series, I delve deeper into exploring my mother’s Scottish ancestry, uncovering both what I know and what I have yet to discover.} What Does DNA say? According to the ethnicity estimate at Ancestry.com, my DNA sample shows that I am 41% Irish and 29% Scottish. That pretty much lines up with the fact that my father’s mother was … Continue reading The Knox Chronicles – Part II
A House of Cards Shortly after writing a post discussing how all people of European descent are related to Charlemagne, I stumbled upon a strange discovery when I realized I could trace a branch of my mother’s lineage back to a 13th-century queen who died 777 years ago. This revelation freaked me out because I had previously traced my father’s ancestry back to the same … Continue reading The Knox Chronicles – Part I
It is not as if I were trying to learn the answer to a question as profound as the one posed in Douglas Adams’ sci-fi classic “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, but I would say it was close in terms of profundity. The series of questions I recently asked of two AI chatbots involved a relatively large number compared to the famous 2-digit response … Continue reading Deep Thinking: Bing vs. Bard
The other day, I stumbled upon a captivating movie titled La Révolution française. This 1989 French-Italian historical drama film directed by Robert Enrico and Richard T. Heffron is a two-part, nearly 5-hour epic film that tells the story of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1794. The film stars an ensemble cast including Jane Seymour (Marie Antoinette), Peter Ustinov (Comte de Mirabeau), and Sam Neil … Continue reading La Révolution française (1989)
Montécheroux is a small village in eastern France near the Swiss border. My father’s great-great-grandparents, Jean Baptiste Francois Xavier Gaume and Marie Elise Favier, were born there in the early 19th century. Elise’s mother’s ancestors had lived in the village since at least the late 17th century. Before the French Revolution, the town was part of the seigneury of Clémont and was ruled by the … Continue reading More on the Montécheroux BMD Records
According to my “DNA Story” at ancestry.com, I am 41% Irish, with the rest being a mix of Scottish, Welsh, Flemish, French, and northern and southern Germanic. Although my Irish comes equally from both parents, my father’s Irish roots are probably based in the Connacht province of the southern, Republican side of the island. Wisely they left before the famine began. While my mother’s family … Continue reading Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
In an earlier post, I discussed the death record of my fifth great grandfather Jean Germaine Voisard, the mayor of Montécheroux, France from 1815 to 1826. In the record, Jean’s mother is named only by the initials NN. This means that neither of the witnesses knew her name. One of the men was a grandson. Her name was Jeanne Antoine Jourot, and she died when … Continue reading Ancien Régime
Jean Germain Voisard was the mayor of Montecheroux, France from 1815 to 1826. He was a fifth great grandfather on my father’s side. As the “maire” of the commune he was first and foremost a bureaucrat whose main responsibility was enforcing the regulations of the “Code civil des Français” – also known as the Napoleonic Code. Msr. Voisard was born in 1754 and he was … Continue reading The Napoleonic Code
Geneanet.org is a genealogical website headquartered in Paris, France. It differs from ancestry.com in that Geneanet is a collaborative site where the members share in the effort of building family trees and supplying transcriptions of registers, both civil and parochial. The site has been around since the mid-nineties, and I was a regular visitor twenty years ago. At Geneanet, I could connect with fellow researchers … Continue reading A Well-Regulated Militia
Gathering Leaves 