Beeks, Allen, Holbrook lines: Our "royaltrees"

 Although this blog will focus mainly on our ancestors on this side of the Atlantic, this particular post takes us back to the Tudors, the Plantagenets, the Stuarts, the Capets, and numerous other lines of royalty, mostly in the time period prior to 1550. 

Each family mentioned above has numerous connections to royalty.  That really doesn't mean much to us in terms of living our everyday lives, since our claims to any throne were long ago extinguished by marriages, the end of the line for male descent, or revolution of one sort or another.  Knowing that many of the rulers we study in history books are either ancestors or cousins does make history more interesting, though. 

I'm listing here the "gateway immigrant" for each of the main lines I'm tracing.  Of course, once we are back a few generations from the "gateway immigrant", the lines all interconnect so that we are all cousins to the other lines.  There are more immigrant ancestors through other marriages, but those immigrants would be considered our step grandmothers and grandfathers, so I won't list them here.  Also, many in our royal lines were not faithful spouses, so many of our descents are from children born to mistresses. 

Allen line: Peter Bulkeley, Jane Allen
Holbrook line: Anne Lovelace Gorsuch, Edward Raynesford
Beeks: Edward Fitzrandolph  goes back to William I of Scotland

There are the lines approved by Douglas Richardson (Allen and Holbrook lines) and others who are very learned in this type of genealogy.

There are also lines, either not proven to the experts' satisfaction or not considered royalty. For instance, the Allen and Holbrook lines both include Owain Glendower as an ancestor. He was not technically royalty, but he assumed the role of leader of Wales during the early 1400s.  His story is fascinating.

Then there are the "maybes". In the Allen line, Mary Morton Hamilton is shown as the wife of Humphrey Parrish.  Since none of the experts have approved this line yet, I'm thinking it is suspect, but I've shown it on our tree anyway.  It traces back to James II of Scotland and Maria Guelders, who has a fabulous tree herself.  We also have a lot of people with the same surname in the same place at the same time as proven gateway immigrants, but they are not proven. Nicholas Corbin and Elizabeth Kemp (a married couple) are good examples of this.  They came to Maryland from England in 1671. Corbin lines and the Kemp lines from Virginia/Maryland both are traced back to royalty, but as far as I can find, no one has proof that Nicholas and Elizabeth actually fit into these families.  

So far I have been unable to trace any lines to royalty of any of the Harshbarger lines. If they exist, they would likely go back to German rulers of long, long ago. However, we can be reasonably certain that each of us traces back to Charlemagne, which gives all of us a reason to claim that we are "royal pains".