CHAPTER XIII
LAST WORDS
At the beginning of this work it was laid down as a golden rule that pedigree-hunters should always, where practicable, verify their information.
This is so important that it may be well to reiterate it at the close. It is often easy to get information second-hand; but to make it his own the searcher may have to exercise a good deal of patience and research, and he must sometimes be prepared for disappointment.
Still, the result will more than repay him, for thus only can his work be sound and satisfactory, and he has a wide field in which to search for the verification of traditional details.
Most of the probably most helpful MSS. and publications have been mentioned in this little book; but if the pedigree-hunter is roaming among the documents in the Record Office or the British Museum, or among the contents of a great library, let him look through the various indexes and try to find out something new for himself. There is a joy in discovery, even if it is only that of an unknown document, and it is impossible to enumerate every work which might help all cases, while new ones, of course, are constantly being added.
If the genealogist is not a student of Heraldry, he will find it both interesting and probably advantageous to form some slight acquaintance with this fascinating subject. The question of the Arms of a Family are of more importance than its Crest and Motto, and through the knowledge of what arms are, and have been, borne by it, the identification of some of its members may be established.
But Heraldry is a wide subject, and many use arms and crests to which they are quite unable to prove their right.
On the other hand, many who now occupy a humble station are lineal descendants in the male line of ancient and historic families.
And, perhaps, our pedigree-hunter may be anxious to prove himself to be of noble or even royal descent.
Some years ago an advertiser offered, for a certain fee, to prove to his clients that they were descended from kings of England. Naturally Truth the argus-eyed, spied this advertisement, and denounced the seeming imposture. But when matters were explained to him, Truth’s opinion somewhat altered.
The point in question is an interesting one. Every one, we may say, has had two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on ad infinitum.
If the reader calculates the number of generations required to take him back to the Norman Conquest, allowing thirty years for each (there would be approximately twenty-eight), this will give him over a hundred million ancestors alive in 1066!
This number will in reality be much lessened by the fact of inter-marriages and relationships (so that the same individuals may be ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides), also by other causes. But the fact remains that there was only a population of a few millions in Great Britain at the time of the Norman Conquest, and our ancestors at that date apparently consisted of a much greater number, so that the probabilities are that almost every Englishman of either Saxon or Norman ancestry must have been descended from every one living in England at the time of the Norman Conquest, including the Conqueror himself.
Of course, this works out also in another way, and makes us all descended from the serfs as well as from the lords of the soil. Though the matter may not be capable of demonstration, it is an interesting point to consider.
A genealogist, however, is not satisfied with a pedigree which cannot be proved, and if our pedigree-hunter thinks, either from the high qualities with which he is endowed, or from the knowledge of noble ancestors having adorned his family tree, that kings must have been undoubtedly numbered among his forbears—well, of course, he must make good his claim, perhaps even to royal descent in the male line.
This probably will not be a matter which can be accomplished, but he may possibly be able to prove that he is descended from English kings—though not in the direct male line—provided that some of his ancestors were of high social position.
As a matter of fact, the majority of our greater and lesser nobility are of royal descent, and if our pedigree-hunter’s ancestors were allied to such families, the descent in his case should be comparatively easy to prove.
To help towards this, he might consult Burke’s Royal Descents and Foster’s Royal Lineages; but if his family cannot claim the honour of royal ancestry, the “kind hearts” which are “more than coronets” may have been his proud heritage through a long line of forbears. And, taking into consideration the millions of ancestors which each noble lord has had, there cannot fail to have been some of low degree from whom he has been descended in bygone centuries.
Some families rise in the social scale, others descend, and the genealogist may come across numerous instances of the vicissitudes of families.
Heirs to the highest of what were regarded as extinct titles have been found occupying the very lowest positions in the social scale. Who knows whether some unexpected stroke of fortune may not come across our genealogical searcher. In fact, there are few limits as to the possibilities which may arise in pedigree-hunting.