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emphasis on Norman history




Dear Cousins,
    I confess to being the instigator of so many questions concerning the
Norman years and transition (titles) into Scotland.  The reason for this
emphasis is that I'm trying to gather every piece of significant history to
help piece together this foundation of ALL our ancestry that is being
presented in a 4 part series in the Yours Aye.  I wanted to keep these in
chronological order to help people see the continuity and flow of history.
I know it is making some of you anxious about getting facts about another
period that concerns or interests you more.  Please bear with me and we will
get through this together.  More contemporary articles will appear next
year.

 I have had to revise the last article 3 or 4 times as more comes in and
what I thought was true, needs to be changed completely.  I don't fool
myself into thinking that what will be in print and on the Clan website will
be the last word.  I think it will be the duty of all to report any new or
old research that comes along that provides new insight or new facts so that
we can update the website.  We don't want to  keep adding layer after layer
of misinformation if we can find the facts.  There will be times that I will
give you 2 or more versions of a story so that you can see where we are in
our knowledge. In this case.  I will not, from this distance of history,
make a judgement about what is fact or fiction.

    I feel that there is a goodly chunk that is missing or that someone
hasn't sent me yet.  It concerns the interaction of the St. Clairs with the
Capets.  I have just little pieces of sentences that hint at intrigues and
wonderful stories that would explain the actions of the St Clairs, maybe.

    Once years ago, I read that Edward the Exile's son was born in Hungary.
That was all there was in the book.  I just couldn't understand how an
Englishman got to Hungary?  Many of you know that story (sort of) and see
that behind a few words is a list of relationships that are entangled in the
story, Queen Emma (St. Clair). Battle of Hastings, William the Seemly,
Malcolm Canmore, etc., so too, with Hugh Capet the Great probably beginning
with his father's generation.

I do agree with you that it feels like we are belaboring the subject right
now.  It is really very possible that we don't descend from Rollo or some of
his descendants at all.  Since there were few women around and many men, who
can say who the father really was any more than one can really prove today
that every male in their line was really their ancestor.  But these
offspring were recognized by the community and raised with the rights and
titles as if they really were the sons of the Dukes thus they are a product
of their environment and contributed heavily to the historical records of
those times.  So how much we can rely on our BLOOD being so great and mighty
is a debateable subject.  (My opinion)  I don't think that Blood makes a
person great.  It is how on we conduct ourselves and the moral choices that
we make that produces either commendable citizens or warts on society.
Laurel


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