History

I have noticed in my research the many attempts to rewrite history by those who desire to abolish any reference to God or Jesus Christ. I guess it should not surprise me considering what we have allowed to happen in our own country. This affects not only those of us who are Christians but also those attempting to establish ancestral lines because many of the sources for historical information including many of the chronicles written during those days have been discredited especially if they were written by anyone claiming a Christian faith. The other problem is the embellishment of stories, many of which I consider to be symbolic references towards either enemies or friends. The only thing that I can do is to cross reference data from several sources if available to insure the accuracy of the information I obtain even when certain figures or names are considered to be mythical. Often times we find that one source will use one variation of the spelling of the name while another writer will use a different spelling. This has caused me much grief as I often times have to go back and delete relatives that have been duplicated when they are one in the same but linking through another ancestor. This has happened more than once because the family of Cheryl and that of my older two children, Cody and Courtney kept marrying back into each other down the line. This sometimes provides several of the children of one generation to all be direct ancestors.

As I have begun to attempt to write this history in a manner that would intrigue a younger generation and hopefully encourage them to delve into history itself, (possibly get them off of their video games for a while) I find myself looking at genealogy in a different light. The determination of exactly where or how to begin was an enormous challenge to which I eventually decided to begin where most every good action movie begins, on the battle field. This of course presented another dilemma and that was which battlefield do I begin with since most of their ancestors were derived from warring tribes. As I began to research this avenue I immediately found several other direct lines simply based upon the battles that I was researching which took me further back into history as well as led me into the early 1500's. I soon found myself no closer to a solution than I was when I first began and my journey took me across several continents as well as an even greater diversity of people; ranging from Russia (Kiev) to Mongolia (an uncle married a grand daughter of Ghengis Khan) and from Norway to Rome and beyond.

I then determined to not only begin on the battlefield but with one specific line or nation; so I choose their Irish line which ended up taking me back to 1200 BC with a direct unbroken male line for 76 generations of kings or high dukes or prince. This line of course gave me the opportunity to begin on the battlefield because the only information on the ancestor was that he obtained the rule over his people by killing the previous ruler then fought for several years to maintain rule before being killed by his predecessor's son who was later killed by his son and on and on it goes down the line, with more and more information being recorded the further down the line it went. This line eventually merged into the Scottish line as well as the English and Norman lines. Other battles include those against the Roman Empire with the German line fighting against Marcus Aurelius as depicted in the opening scene of Gladiator. In the English or Briton line we have the battles against the Romans, Picts and others who attempted to invade. In one battle we have the women scouring the battle field for heads which they would wash and turn over to the king and for payment they would receive a cow for every head they brought. The heads would then be put on display on the wall. Yet as great as these atrocities might seem even in more current history we had much of the same things happen as the wickedness of man rarely changes it merely goes into hiding until such time it can once again be revealed.

Hopefully by my next posting I will decide to actually put some of the genealogy into the post whereby you can actually see some of the links to the names I have mentioned. Until then as you watch any movie based upon historical figures begin to wonder if they are related to you or perhaps if they are your great grandfather, grand mother Aunt or Uncle and yes this does include King Arthur for while some things are embellished he was a historical figure.

Some movies to check out are, The Alamo (ties into the Finley side) Elizabeth I (ties into the Hash (Cheryl's) and Whitehead) (Cody and Courtney's grandmother) Braveheart, King Arthur, Mongal, Atilla, (yes there are ties but difficult to determine) Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, Troy, (yes there is a possible connection as some of the lines claim them as ancestors) Joan of Arc (no for now there is no tie to her but there is to those responsible for her capture and death) Tristan and Isolde, (Isolde's father is possible if I can get past the mythical character as is those of Lord Mark's council) The Last Legion, Amazing Grace, (no not William Wilburforce but some of those in the courts as well as some of the Jacobites) and I am sure there are many others that are at this time escaping my memory which is to be expected with as much information as is crammed in there right now. So until later I hope you enjoy this tidbit.