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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-05 > 0831035514


From: <>
Subject: Re: Bogus Ancestors
Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 11:11:54 +0000


>In article <4m6vr6$>,
>Rudolph A. Krutar <> wrote:
>
>> #5. Never rely on historians. They are so interested in developing
>> theories of the broad sweep of history that they ignore the genealogical
>> facts. How many real people realize from schoolbook history that during
>> World War I, the King of England, the Tsar of Russia, and the Kaiser of
>> Germany were all grandchildren of Queen Victoria?

This has arrived at my server second hand - the server somehow ate the full
original message - obviously, I feel the need to respond.

I deal with the 'genealogical facts' every day; if I ignored them, the
history I wrote would be meaningless. The goal, of course, is to develop
'theories of the broad sweep of history'; these theories would be
meaningless if I ignored the 'genealogical facts.' Please do not make such a
gross generalization as was made above.

As for the second point, it is questionable whether the fact that all those
named above were related by blood and marriage mattered in the context of
WWI. Furthermore, 'schoolbook history' tends to run one or more decades
behind the state of academic research.

Cheers,
Mike Davidson
Dept. of History
University of Edinburg

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