The Normans

[GeistFaust]

Any relation to the Burgoyne of Saratoga fame?

Here is your answer. http://www.theapricity.com/forum/sho...t=1420&page=10

[Joe McCarthy]

Here is your answer. http://www.theapricity.com/forum/sho...t=1420&page=10

Interesting, though in looking it over bear in mind Burgoyne was a British general and he lost that battle.

[rhiannon]

Interesting, though in looking it over bear in mind Burgoyne was a British general and he lost that battle.

I know. LOL. But the relationship to the name Burgoyne in my family is pretty direct, from what my mother has told me.

[rhiannon]

Any relation to the Burgoyne of Saratoga fame?

That's the one

[Euromutt]

This was very informative thanks for posting it up. I'm working on getting my account set up properly which has motivated me to do a deeper search into my families roots. I can only go back on my moms side because my Fathers surname is Brown which is impossible to search with out greater information from that side of the family. My mothers surname is Radcliffe, the name predates standardized spelling so there are many ways it's spelt but this seems to be the more popular one.

I learned that they left Normandy for England in 1066 and stayed there before coming to America in 1631. The question I have, and I hope it's not a dumb one would Norman be considered a Meta-Ethnicity?

[Mercury]

From what I gathered, my known ancestors mostly come from Normandy. Very interesting people and culture.

[Allenson]

I have 'Stewarts' from Scotland in my tree as well. I've always been skeptical of all these Scottish clans being descended from Normans though. In my opinion, it's more likely that they were natives/locals who adopted certain surnames out of fashion.

It's kind of like all these people now who go on Ancestry.com and suddenly claim that they descend from Charlemagne or even William the Douche himself. O-K, if you say so...

Any relation to the Burgoyne of Saratoga fame?

I have a "Hessian" ancestor who was a soldier under Burgoyne. He was captured at Saratoga, marched to Boston (amongst many others), imprisoned for a while and even marched to New Jersey. He eventually returned to Boston and with many other German soldiers, switched sides and eventually fought in a Massachusetts regiment. He settled in the Catskills after the war and rest is history.

Thanks, bro! I wouldn't be here without ya.

[Edmond_Dantes]

I have some Norman ancestry, myself. They were a very interesting people, with their military power and adaptability. Their architecture was quite beautiful as well.

As for descent from such individuals as William the Conqueror, it can be reasonably ascertained from any provable noble ancestry - nobles kept rather meticulous records of their parents, so claims with a valid lineage tend to be somewhat sure to be fine. The exception is, of course, potential infidelity somewhere along the line - we'd never know if it happened, though I'm sure it has happened somewhere. Still, if the lineage is traceable, it's more logical to assume the lineage to be correct than to assume that everyone was unfaithful - there's some slight evidence for the former, no evidence for the latter. Occam's Razor, the simplest answer given the evidence at hand is the most logically plausible one. Where it really starts to get fuzzy is actually more the early Middle Ages - there's absolutely no evidence of any valid claims of traceable lineage to ancestors in antiquity, for example.

[Peasant]

I learned that they left Normandy for England in 1066 and stayed there before coming to America in 1631. The question I have, and I hope it's not a dumb one would Norman be considered a Meta-Ethnicity?

How do you know that? A book on surnames I have got here now has Walter de Radecliua 1182 as the earliest known form.

[Allenson]

I guess I'm speaking of these genealogies that were written in the 1800s and early 1900s, published here in America, that somehow, always, seem to go back to William, one of his lackeys, or even as far back as Charlemagne. I'm sure some lines do but many of these old genealogies are rather fanciful in my opinion. They had a knack for making people feel better about themselves.