A bit of my family tree.

[Rodney Mills]

I've just finished a really good book, especially if you like Historical Fiction,* "The Pillars*of the Earth" by Ken Follitt.* * it's a set of four books that tell a story set in the late IIth century*to mid I2th century Norman England.* All four books are brilliantly researched and written.* If you think you would enjoy a fictional 1000 pages times four books (which you can read them out of sequence, hop on down or go online*to your local used book store and pick them up or go on line*and search used books under the name of the book and author.* Buy any one copy then if you like it buy, the rest.

An added pleasure for me is genealogy, I have a family tree that has over 600 ancestors.* I first read this book five or six years ago and now have just finished*a second read.*in this book some of the characters in the novel are ancestors of mine:

King William 1st "The Conqueror" I034-I069.* a 30th Great Grandfather.* Queen Matilda aka Queen Maud I031-I083 a* 30th Great Grandmother,*King Henry 1st "Beauclerc" I068-II35 a 29th G.G.F.* Empress Matilda of Germany and England* II02-II67 29th Great* G.G.M. King Henry 11* of England II35II189 27th G.G.F.* Elinor of Aquitaine , Queen of England II24-II04 27th GGM

King Stephen 1 of Bois, King of England c.I092-II 54 25th Great grand Uncle

Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou* II13-1151 26th Great Great-grandfather.

King Richard "The Lionheart" 1157-II99*27th Great Granduncle
King John !st "Lackland"* 1I66-1216* 26th Great Great-grandfather

My relationship with the Royal families came to a screeching halt with King Henry II who had no children.* The rest of the family slowly went from*earls to dukes, to knights, to farmers to agricultural laborers. to my father who was a bus conductor.
Women, particularly*daughters of the wealthy were shipped around like cattle to be brides of potential allies, or a peace offering to a possible enemy. So I have ancestors who were Russian, Swedish including Viking lords, Norman, German, Spanish, Welsh, Irish and Scots.
*
My grandfather, George Moss, was a wonderful man. He and my grandmother took my sister and me in for two years when I was nine and she was five.* We had been passed around the family and this was a little ray of sunshine in a miserable childhood, with more to come when we had to move on.*

My grandfather had been a messenger*in the British Army during WWI, He delivered messages from HQ to the battle fields*such as the Somme with a million casualties, in his opinion all done on behalf of three cousins who had a falling out, the King of England, the Tsar of Russia and the Kaiser of Germany. for four years and many other battlefields*caused my grandfather, who was 19 with black hair when he was called up, he was 23 when he*came home with snow white hair. He witnessed*horrors that rivaled Auschwitz and he cursed the royal family until the day he died. If he found*out he had*King William et al in his family tree he'd kick a hole in a stain glass window.

Cheers, Rodney

[John Arton]

Rodney
Read all 4 of those books some years ago. Ken follet books are an excellent read.
Rgds
J.A.
No royal connections in our family tree going back to the 17 hundreds

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Rod
I read those books a few years ago now, great reads. My claim to fame was wearing my Grandfathers first war Gas cape when I started school in 1936, the point at the back dragging in the mud, My grandfather died of gas poisoning in 1925.
My wife is related to John Constable the painter, her great grand mother and his were sisters, it probably why my daughter is such a good painter, she has sold many paintings around Aus,she now teaches painting in the local Gallery.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Researching the family tree can be confusing at times.
My mother in law was we were told 96 when she passed.
Born in Ireland it was hard to find the exact place and of birth and registration of same.
It took some 3 years of hard research to find the truth, she was in fact 97.
The Latter Day Saints came to the rescue in the end with the records in Salt Lake City

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John
They have millions of records in a cave there from what I could find out a few years ago now, probably know more about us than we do, so watch out.
Des

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Reading turns up some surprises, I am presently reading a book, part fiction part truth about Germany during the war, and discovered that the attempt on Hitler's life was on my birthday on July 20th 1944. I think Von Stafenburg must have known, LoL
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Had they done it then it would have been a great birthday present des.

[j.sabourn]

#1. Rodney not trying in any way to be sarcastic , but your grandfather was doing exactly what Adolph was doing but for the other side , he made it to corporal as well as Chancellor as well in later life. Cheers JS

[Harry Nicholson]

I also have claims to social status. In the mid 17th Century my ancestor, George Horsley, was elected to the office of 'Ale-taster' to the town of Hartlepool. So there!

[Rodney Mills]

JSW.

You have a point Johno, however, Adolph was Der Fuhrer, the leader, read king. My Grandpa was sent by a king to settle a family squabble and sickened by literally seeing MILLIONS of young men his age dead and millions wounded and later many to be walking basket cases, sickened by the slaughter.

The machine gun was first used in the U.S. civil war, The generals on both sides in WWI thought it was a wonderful weapon and the stupid bast-herds on both sides used battalions of troops to fight as the they were attacking the enemy in the 1800s. Nice straight lines marching to their deaths.

My grandad was angry at the royalty and the incompetent generals. He came out of WWI having witnessed all the battles and battlefields.

I've seen one body killed in anger and it really shocked me. I can't imagine what it possible looked like seeing cartloads of bodies and thinking any moment for four years it could be me next tossed like so much garbage.

I came into the states at the age of twenty, after being here for six months I had to register for the draft and as Vietnam's problems grew, so did the number of troops being drafted and heaps of bodies and wounded coming back. You also got a pass if you had more than two kids. I had three, but I still sweated the mail, and the evening news in case they upped the number of kids you had until I was 26, I breathed a big sigh of relieve, then Congress voted to raise the draft age to 35 including those with two children. And my cold sweats returned. My plan if drafted was to get quickly into the kitchen as a cook and try and get to be the personal cook to some general and cook him things like Beef Wellington and souffles for his desert. And make me invaluable to him, Oh! and one who was an administration general and posted in the United States.

There's a bit of humor in this mate, my left eye only sees peripherally, if I lost the sight in my right eye, I'm good as blind, but to me I thought I had no problem, in retrospect I realized I'd worried for nothing, I'd never pass the medical physical, but I never knew that then.

To get in the Merch, I passed the medical test because in those days you held a card up to your eye and read the lines of letters, remember? I passed because I didn't quite cover my right eye, eye cheated. I never gave it a thought I'd done that all my life.

I know now I shouldn't have done that, but as a kid I didn't think twice about cheating if I had the chance. And no harm was done and like all on this site I have wonderful memories.

Cheers, Rodney

Cheers, Rodney