About a year ago, I bought Family Tree Maker at Half Price Books, and it included a free year of Ancestry.com - which is a great value. So, I used it a bit back then, but then got lazy and lost track of it. Then suddenly a few weeks ago, a large debit to Ancestry.com appeared on our bank statement... ah yes, I see I now have another year of it.
So I've started my research again, with the gusto that can only accompany a pocketbook that has been emptied. (Translation: I'm getting my money's worth this year!)
I noticed kind of a cool tool built in - when you're viewing the profile of any person in your tree, you can have Ancestry search for famous people related to that person. I was viewing my grandmother's page at the time, so I clicked on it, and got about 50 results. Almost all are relationships like "17th cousin 12 times removed" or other such distant relationships.
There are several famous poets, some presidents and some president's wives, among others.
But one caught my attention. It is a direct link - and Ancestry tells you the authenticity of each link in the chain - only 1 link in this chain has less than 5 out of 5 stars. Do with that what you will.
Anyway, apparently I am a direct descendant of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is my 20th Great Grandfather. I myself had already researched and built my tree back to the third generation below him. Ancestry linked the last three generations. See below for the lineage:
18th Great Grandfather of Shirley Marie Russell
Geoffrey Chaucer(1343-1400)
Alice Chaucer(1369-)(5 stars)
John Manning(1402-1436)(5 stars)
Hugh Manning(1432-1502)(4 stars) (This is the earliest person I had in my tree)
John Manning(1481-1542)(5 stars)
Henry Manning(1501-1583)(5 stars)
Henry Manning(1560-1614)(5 stars)
William Manning(1589-1666)(5 stars)
John Manning(1614-1688)(5 stars)
Jeffrey Manning(1640-1693)(5 stars)
Mary Manning(1663-1692)(5 stars)
Elizabeth Hull(1679-1733)(5 stars)
John Doty(1709-1757)(5 stars)
Samuel Doty(1733-1817)(5 stars)
Anna Doty(1765-1830)(5 stars)
Jonathan Parker(1781-1847)(5 stars)
Anna Parker(1803-1888)(5 stars)
John Albert Allison(1829-1885)(5 stars)
Mary Etts Allison(1874-1936)(5 stars)
Gladys Watchous(1901-1938)(5 stars)
Shirley Marie Russell(1925-)(5 stars)
My Father(1945-)(5 stars)
Me(1978-)(5 stars)
Back in high school, a project in our AP Honors English class was to write our own comtemporary version of The Canterbury Tales. I still have my copy somewhere - I need to look for that. Now I know how I got that A - it was my destiny to write that paper!
-The Krunchy Krab
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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6 comments:
Hey cool, I'm on that website, and he's my 20th great grandfather too! I got a high score on AP English as well. Fun!
I am also a descendent of Geoffrey Chaucer, he is my 19th great grandfather. However our lines diverge after the 2nd John Manning, as I come from Richard Manning. Cool stuff.
Todd D.
I show up as a direct descendant of Chaucer as well. So I started doing some research. From what I could find, Chaucer didn't have a daughter named Alice, but he did have a granddaughter by that name. However, she was never married to a John Manning. Remember, anyone can post a family tree!
this is really strange my sister traced our family tree back and hes my 20th great grandfather too
I too came up as a decendent of Geoffrey Chaucer but I too found that Geoffrey never had a daughter named Alice. Also, my tree further shows that if Geoffrey did have a daughter named Alice that she married Geoffrey's sister Katherine's son John Manning from whence I came. A bit disturbing!
Hey! I am finding that the line is wrong, because Geoffrey never had a daughter named Alice. It was his sister Katherine who had Alice.
Katherine Chaucer married Simon Manning.
They had John Manning who married Alice Walden.
They had another John Manning who married Margaret Brandon.
etc etc
I have been researching on ancestry.com but the problem is that so many of the trees are wrong and are spreading tons of wrong info as people just copy each other's trees. I still might be related to Chaucer, not sure yet, but if I am, he would be an uncle, not a grandfather
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