GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1997-02 > 0855355251


From: "Todd A. Farmerie" <>
Subject: Re: 1st post...this is interesting!
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 17:40:51 -0500


Shawn Wenham wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> This is my first post to the genealogy medieval list....can anyone tell me if
> any one knows of anything about a Knight from France by the name of Jean de
> Wenham. My brother told me that he sailed from France to England with
William
> the Conqueror, some where in 1000 or 1100...not sure on the exact date. My
> family name is WENHAM, and I am trying to trace my family line...and needing
> some help as to whether this is true information or not.
>
> Thanks for whatever you can tell me,
>

Well, such stories are the common fare of medieval genealogy.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of them are entirely unfounded. Round
traces the development of such a legend in the Audley family, where
someone named Liulf (a classical English name) living a century or more
after King William was the earliest person some "genealogist" could
trace to. Because of the cultural desire of the family to be descended
from one of the Conqueror's companions, this man was thrown back in time
and turned into a Norman knight accompanying William to England. Then,
it would seem, as it became the hip thing to have an ancestor in England
BEFORE the Conquest, a later "genealogist" invented an English nobleman
Henry (a name of german origin common among the French and post-conquest
Norman nobility) to be father-in-law of Liulf. Rarely is the invention
this obvious, but unless you can document every generation (which can
only be done for an extremely small number of families) it is likely
that yours is also a fiction.

(I put genealogist in quotes, because the medieval "genealogist" would
be shocked by his modern counterpart. They were more interested in a
good story than whether or not it it was true. Unfortunately, there is
no term for the genealogical alchemist.)

ta

This thread: