My Surprising Genealogy Update: Kings, Queens and Vikings

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I've been obsessed with genealogy since I was a little kid. Recently, Cam had to make a poster, showing his family tree for his class. This got my obsession going again and I found out some very interesting things...

  • My 8th great-grandmother Hannah Lyman (1660-1746) was rumored to be the 16th great-granddaughter of King Henry I. I found that amazing and set out to prove it.
  • I searched back on the Lyman's, until I came to the Lamberts, Elizabeth Lambert, who married Thomas Lyman (1456-1509).

  • Elizabeth's grandfather Robert was the son of Elizabeth De Umfreville (1380-1424) who was the daughter of Robert De. Umfreville (1363-1436).

 

  • The tree goes on through many lines of DeUmfrevilles to Robert I DeUmfreville, who married Adeliza De Beaumont, who was daughter of William the Conqueror!!

William I (Old Norman: Williame I; c. 1028[1] – 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard,[2][a] was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. The descendant of Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035 under the style William II. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands and by difficulties with his eldest son.

 

  • William was the son of the Duke of Normandy (1000-1035) and he had 2 sons. One was King Henry I:

Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to 1135. Henry was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henry's older brothers William Rufus and Robert Curthose inherited England and Normandy respectively, but Henry was left landless. Henry purchased the County of Cotentin in western Normandy from Robert, but William and Robert deposed him in 1091. Henry gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin and allied himself with William against Robert. Henry was present when William died in a hunting accident in 1100, and he seized the English throne, promising at his coronation to correct many of William's less popular policies. Henry married Matilda of Scotland but continued to have a large number of mistresses, by whom he had many illegitimate children.

  • The Duke of Normandy was the son of Normandy the Good (982-1026)

Duke of Normandy was the title given to the rulers of the Duchy of Normandy in northern France, a fief created in AD 911 by King Charles III "the Simple" of France for Rollo, a Norse nobleman, leader of "Northmen".

In 1066 the reigning duke, William II "the Bastard", conquered Brittany and then England, whereupon he became known as King William I "the Conqueror" of England. From then on, the duke of Normandy and the king of England were usually the same man, until the king of France seized Normandy from King John in 1204. John's son Henry III renounced the ducal claim in the Treaty of Paris (1259). Thereafter, the duchy was given at least four times to members of the French royal family, until the French Revolution and the dissolution of the French monarchy in 1792.

  • Richard II the Good was the son of Richard the Fearless

Richard II (978/83 -1026), called the Good (French: Le Bon), was the eldest son and heir of Richard I the Fearless and Gunnora.[1][2] He was a Norman nobleman of the House of Normandy.

  • Richard the Fearless was the son of Rollo RR De Normandie, from Norway. Now we are getting into the Viking history!

Richard I of Normandy (933–996), also known as Richard the Fearless (French, Sans Peur), was the Duke of Normandy from 942 to 996.[1] Dudo of Saint-Quentin, whom Richard commissioned to write his De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum (Latin, On the Customs and Deeds of the First Dukes of Normandy), called him a dux, but this use of the word may have been in the context of Richard's leadership in war, and not a reference to a title of nobility.[2][a] Richard either introduced feudalism into Normandy, or he greatly expanded it. By the end of his reign, most important landholders held their lands in feudal tenure.[3]

  • Rollo was the son of RW o Eysteinsson.

From Wikipedia: 
Rollo (c. 846 – c. 931), baptised Robert[1] and so sometimes numbered Robert I to distinguish him from his descendants, born Hrolf Ragnvaldsson, was a Norse nobleman of Norwegian descent who was founder and first ruler of the Viking principality which soon became known as Normandy. His descendants were the Dukes of Normandy, and following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, kings of England.

 

  •  RW o Eysteinsson was the son of Eystein GJ Uplands, who was the son of Halfdan A Sveidasson

  • Going back a few more years, we come to Heytir Gorrson (425-499), who was The Viking Sea King. This is my 39th great grandfather.

His father was Gorr KJ Thorasson (365-418), and his father was...

Thorri 'Sea-King' King of Kvenland Snaersson, king of Kvenland (320-365).This is the farthest I have gotten back, but I find this really amazing!

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Want to start your own genealogy adventure? I discovered all this info on Ancestry.com! I'd love to hear what you discover about your family!

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Update: Sept.30, 2013:

And I found out recently that I am also related to Prince William!!

Prince William is a direct descendant of William the Conqueror. As you can see, here is Prince William's connection:

William I ---> Henry I ---> Empress Matilda ---> Henry II ---> King John ---> Henry III ---> Edward I ---> Edward II ---> Edward III ---> Lionel, 1st Duke of Clarence ---> Philippa, 5th Countess of Ulster ---> Roger, 4th Earl of March ---> Anne de Mortimer ---> Richard, 3rd Duke of York ---> Edward IV ---> Elizabeth of York ---> Margaret Tudor ---> James V of Scotland ---> Mary, Queen of Scots ---> James I and VI of England and Scotland ---> Elizabeth of Bohemia ---> Sophia of Hanover ---> George I ---> George II ---> Frederick, Prince of Wales ---> George III ---> Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn ---> Queen Victoria ---> Edward VII ---> George V ---> George VI ---> Queen Elizabeth II ---> Prince Charles ---> Prince William