Family trees can reveal a LOT! For example, in researching my own tree, I learned that I am a direct descendent of several of the Swedes and Finns who settled the Delaware valley starting in 1638. My fifth great-grandfather crossed the Delaware with Washington and fought at the battle of Trenton. I learned that I had more than one person in my family who fought in the Civil War on the Union side. There were other revelations, and DNA matches held a “surprise.”
However, perhaps the most important family tree is that of the British monarchs. It had a direct influence on the American Constitution.
If Americans know anything about British history, they may know about William the Conqueror, and they may think that all British monarchs descend from William the Conqueror in a straight line. It’s anything but straight. And the story gets really interesting with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Queen Anne’s half-brother James, who was raised as a Catholic, should have succeeded her. However, Catholics were not allowed to become king or queen, which led to the Jacobite rebellion. Instead we have to look back at Mary Queen of Scots, and her son, James VI of Scotland and James I of England (he held both titles). James’ granddaughter married into the house of Hanover in Germany, and had a son, George. The house of Hanover was Lutheran, a protestant denomination. So after Queen Anne died without issue, there was a frantic search for who could succeed her in place of James, her half-brother, and they found George. George had never been trained to be a king of anything, and he didn’t speak English. Nevertheless, George was brought to England and crowned king. The provision in the Constitution that says that the president of the United States will be a natural-born citizen came as a result of this succession.
As I said, family trees can be quite interesting! 😊
P.S. I have a B.A. in Foreign Policy and International Politics. I took lots of history classes in college and AP History in high school. Despite all of my knowledge of history, I knew the answers to only three of the questions in the political trivia quiz last night. 🤦♀️
You turned me onto this podcast! I love it. While listening to The Rise of the Nazis series(2023) I noted they stay away from calling out the commonalities between the political ideology of the Nazi regime and our political environment currently. It’s frightening.
I had never heard of Unity Mitford until reading this post, so I looked her up, and - holy cow what a wild family that was. Someone should make a miniseries about the Mitford siblings.
I want to give a shoutout to the British History Podcast. Jamie Jeffers does an amazing job of telling the story of British history from the very start of the uninhabited island. More than 400 episodes. He & his wife, Zee, also do a great job with the subscribers-only episodes, expanding on topics not fully covered in the main podcast, like a three-part deep dive into medieval medicine. The podcast is currently working its way through the aftershocks of 1066 and William's fights with his sons.
I started listening to these guys a few weeks ago with the four Byron episodes. Crikey! You are right - entertaining, informative, and funny - although sometimes their English accents require a rewind or two! They are also a bit tough on our founding fathers - but I am Ok with a bit of that. Try Clay Jenkinson on Listening to America for balance on that front .
Thanks for turning me on to them, Chris! So far I've listened to the Titanic and the Rise of the Nazis episodes, and am looking forward to listening to the rest.
I can't be the only one who thought you were talking about Spider-Man right?
I thought history was boring until I read a distant mirror by Barbara Tuchman.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Distant_Mirror
Family trees can reveal a LOT! For example, in researching my own tree, I learned that I am a direct descendent of several of the Swedes and Finns who settled the Delaware valley starting in 1638. My fifth great-grandfather crossed the Delaware with Washington and fought at the battle of Trenton. I learned that I had more than one person in my family who fought in the Civil War on the Union side. There were other revelations, and DNA matches held a “surprise.”
However, perhaps the most important family tree is that of the British monarchs. It had a direct influence on the American Constitution.
If Americans know anything about British history, they may know about William the Conqueror, and they may think that all British monarchs descend from William the Conqueror in a straight line. It’s anything but straight. And the story gets really interesting with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Queen Anne’s half-brother James, who was raised as a Catholic, should have succeeded her. However, Catholics were not allowed to become king or queen, which led to the Jacobite rebellion. Instead we have to look back at Mary Queen of Scots, and her son, James VI of Scotland and James I of England (he held both titles). James’ granddaughter married into the house of Hanover in Germany, and had a son, George. The house of Hanover was Lutheran, a protestant denomination. So after Queen Anne died without issue, there was a frantic search for who could succeed her in place of James, her half-brother, and they found George. George had never been trained to be a king of anything, and he didn’t speak English. Nevertheless, George was brought to England and crowned king. The provision in the Constitution that says that the president of the United States will be a natural-born citizen came as a result of this succession.
As I said, family trees can be quite interesting! 😊
P.S. I have a B.A. in Foreign Policy and International Politics. I took lots of history classes in college and AP History in high school. Despite all of my knowledge of history, I knew the answers to only three of the questions in the political trivia quiz last night. 🤦♀️
You turned me onto this podcast! I love it. While listening to The Rise of the Nazis series(2023) I noted they stay away from calling out the commonalities between the political ideology of the Nazi regime and our political environment currently. It’s frightening.
I’ll check it out!
Maybe those guys should be the new history teachers in our nation's classrooms.
I can't wait to check the podcast out!
It is a great podcasting team making history fun!! With degrees in history, it was a joy when I found these two!
Thank you Chris, great recommendation!
I had never heard of Unity Mitford until reading this post, so I looked her up, and - holy cow what a wild family that was. Someone should make a miniseries about the Mitford siblings.
Excellent podcast!
I want to give a shoutout to the British History Podcast. Jamie Jeffers does an amazing job of telling the story of British history from the very start of the uninhabited island. More than 400 episodes. He & his wife, Zee, also do a great job with the subscribers-only episodes, expanding on topics not fully covered in the main podcast, like a three-part deep dive into medieval medicine. The podcast is currently working its way through the aftershocks of 1066 and William's fights with his sons.
I started listening to these guys a few weeks ago with the four Byron episodes. Crikey! You are right - entertaining, informative, and funny - although sometimes their English accents require a rewind or two! They are also a bit tough on our founding fathers - but I am Ok with a bit of that. Try Clay Jenkinson on Listening to America for balance on that front .
Thanks for turning me on to them, Chris! So far I've listened to the Titanic and the Rise of the Nazis episodes, and am looking forward to listening to the rest.
Those are outstanding. Loved both. Nazis in Power is also really good.
I definitely plan to listen to those episodes, too.