Backward through the ages
About 60 years before the ancestors of Preston Thames fled the west coast of France to escape the persecution and massacre of Huguenots, Mabel Muldrow’s ancestors sailed from the east coast of England, headed for Massachusetts and what they believed would be religious freedom.
Ha!
The Huguenots settled in South Carolina, which was founded by entitled if not titled second sons of aristocrats whose main goal was to get filthy rich and rule over vast estates. This mentality is preserved to a large extent today among certain folks I’ll refrain from naming. But the upside was that nobody in authority cared about the religious ideas of some Frenchies setting up housekeeping in the Santee swamp.
Massachusetts was founded by do-gooders who believe there was one way and one way only to do good—their way. That is also still somewhat true today. But I get ahead of myself.
When I say “we” and “our” I refer to the descendents of Preston B. Thames (b.1894) and Mable C. Muldrow (b. 1898), which as of 2009 total 21—two children, five grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, and five great-great grandchildren. But the first person plural may also refer to descendents of Preston’s and Mabel’s siblings, second and third cousins and beyond, depending on which side they are on.
First I’m going to go back, way way back, to 1088, when a person by the name of Eudo de Arsik appeared in the Domesday Book, where William the Conqueror recorded the names of the conquered, probably the better to tax them. Family Search website traces the line of Mabel Muldrow back to this name in 1088. (This also means that we have among our cousins one or more Mormons.) The Internet reveals that the current royal family of England, and probably Michael Jackson and Hillary Clinton, are also related to Arsik.
I did the math, counting back the generations to see how many direct ancestors I have: 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-greats and on. By the time I got to the 1700s I had thousands. By 1100 I had a billion, but there were no where near a billion people alive in 1100.
That means that I am related to everyone who was alive in 1100, which means everyone alive today is related to Arsik, from my next-door neighbour to a child born yesterday in the rainforests of Kenya to Prince William, Michelle Obama, and Mark Sanford.
So chew on that a bit and then come forward to 600 years to 1596. I was related to thousands of people alive then but I’m going to zero in on one family that some distant Mormon cousin has identified as related to me through my grandmother Mabel: the Wrights of Norwich.
Ha!
The Huguenots settled in South Carolina, which was founded by entitled if not titled second sons of aristocrats whose main goal was to get filthy rich and rule over vast estates. This mentality is preserved to a large extent today among certain folks I’ll refrain from naming. But the upside was that nobody in authority cared about the religious ideas of some Frenchies setting up housekeeping in the Santee swamp.
Massachusetts was founded by do-gooders who believe there was one way and one way only to do good—their way. That is also still somewhat true today. But I get ahead of myself.
When I say “we” and “our” I refer to the descendents of Preston B. Thames (b.1894) and Mable C. Muldrow (b. 1898), which as of 2009 total 21—two children, five grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, and five great-great grandchildren. But the first person plural may also refer to descendents of Preston’s and Mabel’s siblings, second and third cousins and beyond, depending on which side they are on.
First I’m going to go back, way way back, to 1088, when a person by the name of Eudo de Arsik appeared in the Domesday Book, where William the Conqueror recorded the names of the conquered, probably the better to tax them. Family Search website traces the line of Mabel Muldrow back to this name in 1088. (This also means that we have among our cousins one or more Mormons.) The Internet reveals that the current royal family of England, and probably Michael Jackson and Hillary Clinton, are also related to Arsik.
I did the math, counting back the generations to see how many direct ancestors I have: 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-greats and on. By the time I got to the 1700s I had thousands. By 1100 I had a billion, but there were no where near a billion people alive in 1100.
That means that I am related to everyone who was alive in 1100, which means everyone alive today is related to Arsik, from my next-door neighbour to a child born yesterday in the rainforests of Kenya to Prince William, Michelle Obama, and Mark Sanford.
So chew on that a bit and then come forward to 600 years to 1596. I was related to thousands of people alive then but I’m going to zero in on one family that some distant Mormon cousin has identified as related to me through my grandmother Mabel: the Wrights of Norwich.
posted by Miss Grimke at
4:08 PM
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