So I posted this blog about granpa Rollo recently and I decided to copy it to a free site I know of called Family Tree Circles. (free is always good) and wonder of wonders - I get a response from a gentleman who tells me that his wife is studying Rollo, but she doesn't have an account. (excuse me, does this smell like chloroform to you?) So I respond politely and I get an email from this wonderful lady living in Cheshire, England who has traced her family to ROLLO AND BEYOND. What I did not know and am now geeking out about is that Rollo was not only my grandpa - but he was a grandfather to William the Conquerer. (that's a genealogical checkmate right there) She was very sweet in her manner of telling me that my family descends from a "legitimate" relationships while hers branches down from an extramarital liaison. Imagine - my dad's ruffians "legitimate" - har har.

Anyway - I'm thinking that loads of peeps - if your peeps hollaback to the UK or Northern France are probably related to Wm simply because - if you can find recordkeeping going back that far - it means the family had the means to keep records.

Not to slur my ethncity or anything but sometimes I wonder about the average white folk and their dismissal of "culture and history" I think I would have paid better attention in history class if there had been a personal investment in it instead of the doggerel they forcefeed our young 'uns. Seems like a lot of my paler toned peeps are cultural transients who keep little to no knowledge of who they were in preference for who they wish to become. Not sure why that is. For me, knowing who I was makes who I is more valid.

I also don't get the whole search and destroy mindset. It is a perpetual sore spot that one half of my research on my husband's clan is thwarted by the simple fact that the powers that be decided to toast the churches and destroy records...so any researchers hitting that barrier in Prussia/Poland/Germany - thanks so much, Adolph. You were a peach. (watch it. Ten years from now I'll discover that I'm related to Adolph...)

Anyway, gotta love the interwebs. Connectivity is power and the next Adolph - won't be able to find ALL the ones and ohs...if we aren't crisped by a CME or popped off the planet by a rogue asteroid - somebody somewhere will retain the information....

A special thank you to Family Tree Circles for the William the Conqueror connection. What an awesome find!

Peace.