Your Ancestry

[Yokai]

I'm a great many things. As for significance I am descended from the Count of Toulouse AKA one of the men responsible for The First Crusade. I am also related to Possibly a founder of the Knights Templar. Not fun having that taint upon my ancestry, but I also am descended from the opposing forces as well. I like to think of it as a little Templar-Assassin love.

Well, the Templars, despite being bastards, were also pretty badass. I figure if you're going to have rather villainous ancestry, they might as well be magnificent villains.

Wait, how were the Templars bad and a "taint"? They have a rather proud history, were great warriors, and were martyed before a King because of how popular they became. How badass is that?

Well, they were popular in Europe. Remember that their popularity came about via slaughtering a hell of a lot of innocent Muslims. To be fair, though, they were saints compared to the Knights Teutonic, who (interestingly enough) were also even more badass. It seems like, in Medieval Europe, you only got to be truly awesome if you mercilessly stabbed everyone who disagreed with you.

 

[LogicNProportion]

I love these threads, flaunting my family's (father's side) deep knowledge of our family tree.

My favorite is the man we trace farthest back to, by a man named Hadrian. He was an officer in the Roman legions, and served under Scipio. He was there when Carthage burned to the ground. Afterword, he was made a judge in Rome for his distinguished services.

Yes, I know, my E-Peen is quite large. ;]

EDIT: And to give some love to my mother's side:

I don't know them by name, but they were French nobles, and when they came to America, they 'infiltrated' the Chinook Indian Tribe. ;]

EDIT EDIT:

Further flauntage:

http://www.houseofnames.com/nameresults.asp?item=JPG-1001-300&surname=disalvo&origin=IT

 

[vento 231]

German and Native American, proud US citizen. I'm related to Daniel Boon somewhere along the line.

 

[Nickolai77]

Right... the O'Dowd clan then.

Originally spelt O'Dubdha (O'Dooda) they were a clan which rose to prominence among the Uí Faichrach people whom lived in west Ireland in around the 10th century, becoming the kings over the areas of county Mayo and Sligo. They retained kingship until the 13th century, and became confined to a barony in Tireragh. In the 17th century the O'Dubdhda ruling family were ousted from their lands, probably by Oliver Cromwell, leaving behind 24 castles and 52 towns. Soon after O'Dubhda became anglicised to O'Dowd, Dowd or Doody, O'Dowd being the most common.

As for on my mother's side...they came from the Lake District before moving down to the Wirral sometime in the late 19th century. (My great grandfather, on my dads side, emigrated to Liverpool in the 1920's) They could have been anything from labourers to free holders, but i imagine they were probably descendant from colonists who moved into the Lake District during the 13th century. Which means they must have originally lived in the north east of England. Given the family name Elwood, it sounds Anglo-Saxon to me, but given their location in the north east, there probably is some Viking blood in the family too.