Author Description

This work, in three volumes, takes the documented ancestry of James Edward Conway from his Gateway Ancestor, Anne Couvent, to notable historical figures in medieval history. To name just a few, in these pages you will find King Henri Capet of France, Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, Kenneth MacAlpin, William the Conqueror, St. Margaret of Scotland, King Henry II and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the semi-legendary Viking leader Ragnar Lodbrok as well as documented Vikings such as Harold Fair Hair, and Rollo the Dane, with many other kings and queens of medieval Europe. The document ends with Merovech who fought Attila the Hun in 451 A.D. and with Cerdic of Wessex, the earliest documented ancestor of the English royal line.The three volumes each contain more than 400 pages of narrative text with hundreds of unique footnotes and references. The references that I have used in most cases are the same as those used by hereditary societies to track the ancestry of their applicants. ORGANIZATION: This book begins with John Conway in generation 1, as person number 1. Generation 2 consists of his parents as persons 2 and 3. Generation 3 shows his four grandparents as persons 4, 5, 6, and 7 and so forth. To find any person's father, double their number. To find that person's mother, double their number and add 1. This follows the numbering pattern on a standard pedigree chart and is known as an ahnentafel pedigree. COATS OF ARMS: Where possible, I have shown the historical Coats of Arms associated with each individual. Daughters typically have the same Coat of Arms as their father. Some notable exceptions are queens, as they typically carried both the Coat of Arms of their father and their husband in pale, or on the same shield, split vertically. Heraldry can tell the story of a lineage all its own. In some cases, the pedigree goes back before the age of heraldry. For example, it is doubtful that Charlemagne carried the shield shown beside his name. It is, however, the Coat