the mary gye (mary sargent & elizabeth perkins) experience!

how do i use these charts?
(and other questions)

How do I use the charts?
It is simple. Start with either Mary Gye, Elizabeth Perkins or Mary Sargent. The charts start from the bottom and work their way up. When you reach the top, some names say "To ...chart" (the others are dead-ends). Return to the Chart List, select that chart and keep going. Eventually the charts will connect, but not until there is time to map out all the charts. For now, this will have to do. go to top

Why did you do it this way?
Originally, I tried the traditional charting method of following a given family line. However, this quickly became unwieldy as I moved further back into the tangled families of European Royalty. In addition, with three women sharing a common ancestry of hundreds of people, it made no sense to do the same charts in three different ways to accomodate all three intersecting family lines. I found a more elegant way of following the lines by going from one couple with multiple lineages (meaning that we are descended from more than one child of the parent) to another with multiple lineages.

This means that you will find some charts (like Marie of Swabia) which seem to go on forever until you go to the next charts. Other charts ("like William "The Conqueror's") only include the parents & children before they go onto the next chart. This novel method led to the least amount of chart overlap and makes sense the more you use it.

You will find the occasional rogue chart (especially at lower levels) which goes from single child to single child, but those are mainly due of exasperation on my part when a chart went on a bit too long before leading to a multiple lineage family chart or because I later found a branch that had been missed the first time around. go to top

Why is European Royalty so tangled?
Because marriage was a tool of property, politics & religion. (In fact, the notion of marriage as a product of romance is a relatively late concept in Western civilization's development.) For example, King Henry I of England cleverly married eight of his illegitimate daughters to extend his lands, empire & political allies. King Richard "The Lion-Hearted" offered his widowed sister Joan to Saladin as part of a peace package. King Diarmait MacMurchada of Leinster in Ireland, offered his daughter Aoife to Earl Richard "Strongbow" de Clare in exchange for the latter's military assistance against Ireland's High King. In doing so, he turned Ireland over to the English and started "The Troubles" between the two nations. These are not isolated incidents, but the accepted way that those born to royalty understood marriage.

In addition, royalty was required to marry royalty and so "keep the lines pure". On the one hand, this means that stumbling onto minor royalty usually paves the way back to the 300s C.E. On the other hand, it means that one must untangle the incredible intermarriages of all the lines and families. More amazing, members of those families would have known and understood these lines by heart! An astounding feat to modern genealogists... go to top

How do I follow a line up?
This direction is easy. As you reach the tops of the charts, some names (the others are dead-ends) have "to [insert name here] chart". For now, simply return to the Chart List and go to that person's site. Eventually, you will be able to click to the next chart as I map each page, but for now, this will have to do. go to top

How do I follow a line down?
This is more difficult and less elegant. The easiest way is to go to the List of Everyone By Name (warning! huge file! give it time to load!), find the person you want to trace down and see what, if any, chart is referenced in "Connects To Chart" (column 4). You can then go to the Chart List page and access that chart. go to top

Why don't you go back to Milesius (Mílé Easpain), Adam, Odin, Lugh, etc.?
Believe me, I was as thrilled as the next genealogist when I found sites & books which took my tree back to Milesius & the Tuatha de Danaan. For others, the golden grail is Adam. However, when I would contact webmasters or authors about their sources so I could cite these finds, I consistently received the same answer: "I got it off the web." When I went to their source site and asked for sources, I was told "I got it off the web.". And so on, and so on... I found that these lines to the gods of your choice were a giant Internet game of "Telephone". What was up with this?!

Then, during my readings on European Royalty, I found the answer...repeatedly. Pre-Christian Kings needed to prove their right to be King came directly from the Gods & Goddesses. The easiest way to prove that was to show that you were descended from them. Thus, they charged their genealogical chroniclers with proving such genealogical "proof" under pain of...well, you can well imagine the wrath of a thwarted medieval monarch.

When monks took over the duties of Pagan scribes, the lines now led to Adam instead of the Pagan Gods & Goddesses native to the countries. But the intent -- and the dubious scholarship & forgeries -- were the same. This is why these lines do not appear here. If someone can point me to documented, credible scholarship taking these lines to [Milesius, Odin, Tuatha de Danaan, Adam, etc.], I will add the people to the lines with the proper citation. "Telephone" does not count!!!

Until then, such lines are fictitious. So sorry. People want these lines to be true as much as they wish to find a Mayflower or famous ancestor. I feel & understand the disappointment when they are not true, but we cannot do credible genealogy from the whims of medieval monarchs in need of divine rights. go to top




many thanks!
