1000 Ancestors

1000 Ancestors, so where do we begin?  Maybe at the very beginning... because I was born TODAY! It's September the 20th, 2021 and I'm Oscar. I was born 12 days late so my Mum said she was very relieved. [INSERT PHOTO] My Great-Uncle Andrew had already been working on his family tree for some years, and he said I could have all his research.  It's here in this blog. He said that by the time I was ready for school and could read, he would have information on a 1000 different ancestors for me. I'm not sure what ancestors are at the moment, but I think they are older than Mum and Dad, much older than Grandma, and even older than my Great-Grandmas and Great-Granddad.  Uncle Andrew said Dad went to him when he had a school project on families when he was about 7, and asked him about his family. So that's when Andrew went to both sides of his family and came up with lots of names of aunts and uncles, and cousins. There were so many of them! He's put them all into somet...

Stafford Castle WIKI which lies just to the south of Stafford, the county town of Staffordshire. While it is still a distance from the town centre, it has a good view over the farmland to the south, and is protected because of the marshland to the north.  Despite the lack of much ancient brickwork, the site is one of the best examples of an early multi-motted Norman castle in England Much of the modern castle on view is part of a Victorian folly on an exiting plan. Further buildings were demolished in the 1950s as a result of fatal accidents.

  ROBERT II, King of Scotland   WIKI  Relationship: 19th gt-gdfather (maternal side) Descent from Royalty: ROBERT de BRUS  WIKI  (maternal grandfather)   BORN:  2 Mar 1316 DIED:    19 Apr 1390   FAMOUS for: First Stewart king of Scotland; the Battle of Otterburn WIKI victory against the English INFAMOUS for: Father of more than 26 children (at least ten from his first wife) Today is the 631st anniversary of his death. King Robert II seems to have been very much the Common Ancestor of all Scots, and probably therefore of all British too. 

St ELIZABETH of HUNGARY WIKI  Relationship: 24th gt-gdmother (maternal side) Descent from Royalty: ANDREW II of Hungary  WIKI  (father)   BORN:   7 Jul 1207 DIED:    17 Nov 1231   FEAST DAY: 17 November (19 November) FAMOUS for: Married at 14, widowed at 20; Patroness of the Third Order of St Francis WIKI MIRAC LES : the Miracle of the Roses WIKI ; the Crucifix in the Bed FAMOUS QUOTE: (on hearing of her husband’s death) “He is dead. He is dead. It is to me as if the whole world died today.”

RED SOCKS, ghost of Broughton Hall WIKI , Staffordshire Relationship: Distant cousin.  He is unnamed in the folk stories but was probably a son of the Broughton family living there in the C17th. The first Ghost story I ever learned about, the story of Red Socks… During the Civil War in England, he was the young son of a Royalist household in Staffordshire. When Cromwellian soldiers came down the drive, he leant out of the window and shouted ‘I’m for the King!’ and was promptly shot for his defiance. He staggered into the next room, where a pool of blood spilt on his death. Supposedly that blood stain comes and goes, despite repeated scrubbing, and the ghost of a boy in bright red stockings has been seen over the centuries, often playing games such as ‘hide and seek’ with the current house owners and guests. When I last visited, it was the home of an order of Nuns who still pointed out the stain (if I remember, just off the main staircase). Before that it was the home ...

The first castle on my Blog would be the local CHARTLEY CASTLE WIKI , near the village of Stowe-by-Chartley WIKI BLOG  on the main road between Stafford and Uttoxeter. It is an imposing ruin, but there are no easy places to stop, and the site is not open to the public, so I have no personal photo. One year, I used to drive past these ruins every day to work.  photo by Stephen Jones, posted to Flickr, used on Wikipedia Built: c1100 by the Earls of Chester; rebuilt in 1220; abandoned late 15th century Grade II* Listed LINK Ancestors who lived/stayed here: HUGH de KEVELIOC, 5th Earl of Chester (1147-1181) WIKI BLOG WILLIAM de FERRERS, 5th Earl of Derby (c1193-1254) WIKI BLOG Other guests: The adjacent Chartley Manor was acquired by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex WIKI . It was here that Mary, Queen of Scots WIKI was imprisoned 1585-6. She was staying here when Sir Francis Walsingham WIKI , Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, decided to arrest Mary for treason. While she was out...