A Royal connection and Emerson is not impressed!

Dear Diary,

I spent the last two days digging through another family line and discovered that I am a direct descendent of King Edward I of England.  Ho Hum!  Plainly Emerson is not impressed!  Neither am I.  King Edward did some pretty horrible things, as I suppose most rulers did back in the day.

I suspect most people who trace their lineage back to England will find a royal or two in their line if they go far enough back.  In fact, a friend sent me a link to an article by National Geographic about how closely related we all are to some royalty.

I was much more interested to find that my 14th great grandfather was the sheriff of Shropshire.  In my favorite series of Brother Cadfael stories, he works closely with the sheriff of Shropshire to solve the mysteries.  (You can see Emerson using one of Ellis Peters books as a pillow in this photograph!)

Genealogy is such a fascinating adventure but in the end we can no more claim the virtues of our ancestors than we can dwell on their vices.  It is what it is and we can't alter the past but it does make for a real good story!