Last night I was watching an episode of Who Do You Think You Are featuring Courtney Cox. Toward the end of
the show, after tracing her rather complicated family line, they showed her
where she was a direct descendant of Edward I of England, then shortly
thereafter, that Edward I was a direct descendant of William the Conqueror. I
was surprised that they didn’t show farther up the tree from William, But that
got me thinking about the early generations of my family and my own connections
to this royal line.
I have documented earlier my Scandinavian roots (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/05/genealogy-story-scandinavian-roots.html)
and how my 28th great-grandfather was Hugh de Roussel/Rosel/Rozel
from Normandy and how he was an attendant of William the Conqueror in 1066. This
same blog shows the next several generations back to Hugh’s great*4
grandfather, Ragnald I Earl of Orkney Eysteinsson (830-894). Ragnald was the
father of Hrolf Ganger (also called Rollo or Hrollager Ragnvaldsson) who was
the founder of Normandy and that “he was the direct ancestor to William I of
England” and “he is therefore the ancestor of most of the royal families of
Europe.”
There are numerous websites which show the royal lineage
from William I (“the Conqueror”) through the present day royal family. But not
nearly as many show William’s ancestry. I have reproduced a short section of it
here:
William “the Conqueror” 1028-1087 -> William I of England
(also the Duke of Normandy)
Robert I “the magnificent” d 1035
Richard II “the good” d 1026
Richard I “the fearless” d 996
William I “longsword” d 942
Rollo 846-931 (the son of Ragnald, and another name for
Hrolf mentioned above)
Since Rollo is thus the great*3 grandfather of William the
Conqueror as well as the great*3 grandfather of Hugh, that means they were 4th
cousins. It’s no wonder that Hugh participated in the Norman invasion with his
cousin, the Duke of Normandy, and thus the leader of the Norman community.
Of course, my mother’s family (Pierpont, originally de
Pierrepont) was also Norman at the same time. The first recorded instance of
the family was Sir Hugh de Pierrepont from the same time period as above. And
the Pierpont family history records that he was “lord of the Castle of
Pierrepont in the south confines of Picardy and diocese of Laon,” a branch of
the Pierreponts who were lord of Castle Pierrepont two leagues from S. Saveur,
Normandy, whence they derived their name.” One of Sir Hugh’s grandsons, Robert,
accompanied William the Conqueror in 1066 and he appears in the Domesday Book. Another
of Hugh’s grandsons is the ancestor of the French line of Pierreponts.
But unknown in all of this is the relationship of the
Pierrepont family to the line of William. We know that they must have been
close, as not only was Sir Robert a knight and a commander in William’s army,
but he received great estates from William in the counties of Suffolk and
Sussex. Here is a few sources for this - https://books.google.com/books?id=j-kpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA340&lpg=PA340&dq=pierrepont+normandy+%22william+the+conqueror%22&source=bl&ots=NyaS7ipmDb&sig=MgirOSFJd7pwh2yPJRi2FspMwYY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYwN32zc_SAhUU-WMKHWglCZEQ6AEIMzAE#v=onepage&q=pierrepont%20normandy%20%22william%20the%20conqueror%22&f=false,
and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pierrepont-45.
I have tried numerous times to find any records which might
show the ancestry of Hugh de Pierrepont, but without success. So for now it is
an unresolved question. But the Norman ancestry of both my Russell and Pierpont
family lines is well documented, as is my DNA profile which documents the
strong Scandinavian influence in my bloodlines (see http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2016/03/dna-testing-lots-of-confirmation-and.html).
Hello Alan my fellow Russell,
ReplyDeleteI found this blog very interesting, can you please read through this post I have placed on another site and see how much truth is in it? It's just family history stories that have been passed down through generations but you seem to know an awful lot more about the subject......
It was my understanding through my father and others that Russell's originally came as viking mercenaries employed by William the Conquerer of Normandy to take place in his army during the invasion of Southern England in 1066. The leader and right hand man of William the Conquerer was known as "Russell the Red" due to his large red beard. (Point to note this is why the name William has always been in boys middle or first names in my family for generations). After the battle, William the Conquerer granted most of the Russell's land in Dorset where they settled however, there was bitterness amongst the other Russells over their role in the battle and they were sent packing North, all the way to Scotland where they joined the picts and other Viking settlers from previous. Hence why there is evidence of a Russell family "clan" and Scottish heritage as well as English. I myself allegedly am descendant from the English-Dorset settlers. Much later during the colonisation of North America, a large number of Russell's then migrated there. This is all information passed down to me and apparently has been passed down from a very long time ago. I have had a lot of trouble trying to trace my family history back from myself however. Also I was told my family have always had Soldiers in every generation, quite apt as I am a serving Soldier myself.
Yours Aye
Joe Frank William Russell
Furthermore, due to the nature of the Viking "family" naming system it was more of a clan of sorts. They populated and branched off in their travels South to Normandy and through France. Due to the translation of the name and variations in writing that meant there was variations in the name in the settlements across Normandy and France; Russell, Russel, Russle etc. All have traces of "Russ" or "Rus" and a link to "Rouge" or "Red" as they were mainly red haired originally, although there are tales of a very bloody history also. Oddly enough there are still a lot of red haired Russell's, although I am not my father, uncle and brother are.
Maybe that can shed some light?
Joe
Joe, your family stories are pretty accurate. The original Russell was the Baron du Rozel who had a castle in Normandy because of the invasion of the Vikings in that part of the world. He was a distant cousin of William (the Conquerer) and participated in the Norman invasion in 1066. After some time in Dorset (where some of the family stayed) and there were eventually Lords/Sirs/Dukes/etc. over the years, it appears that some also went north to Scotland, although I have not found any hard evidence, only stories, to support it. My original US ancestor came here around 1750 from Scotland, but some of the English branch came here in the 1630s to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The red hair has long disappeared from my branch of the family too, but the blue eyes are a genetic remnant of our Viking ancestry.
DeleteJoe, if you want to send me some information about your Russell heritage (father/grandfather/etc. names, dates of birth/death/etc.) then I may be able to trace your ancestry. I'm pretty good at finding out that kind of thing. Send to me via email - alan@therussellhome.us
DeleteHello my name is John Allen Russell. My family heritage goes back to high de Rozel and I hen I was young during the summer my hair would bleach out some and you could see the red in it. I have been working on my family heritage for some time now and we have done our dna so we are forsure of our heritage
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