Family Tree Stuff
Monday, 27 May 2019
Looking through some genealogy bits and pieces I had, I started to piece them together online. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints host an easy-to-use site here. You’ll need to sign up for a free account to view the links I’m including.
If you put in a few names and dates, it generally offers matches with existing records and work that others have done. Heather’s family tree has some interesting areas: lots of German and Swiss migrants including, famously, Hans Herr, founder of the Amish community in USA.
Take a look by starting with Mary Reese and going back from there. You’ll see I haven’t put much info in myself, mainly I’ve linked to existing records. I’d be grateful for whatever Fisher and Martin names and dates people have.
I think there was a glitch in our understanding the relationship to Hans Herr. Heather’s mother was Nancy; her mother was Molly; and her mother was Mary Catherine Reese. In our version of the tree, Mary’s father was Martin K Reese, whose own mother was the joyously named Fanny Herr. In fact the records seem to suggest that Mary’s father was a different Martin K Reese, Martin Kuhn Reese, (1845-1926). No matter. Not only does Fanny Herr still appear—albeit more tangentially—in the tree, there is still a direct line back to Hans Herr through a slightly different route. Martin married Catherine Elizabeth Winters (1850-1922) in Pennsylvania in 1865. Catherine’s father Silas Winters (1821-1900) had a mother named Esther Gochenour (1792-1839), whose father Joseph Gochenour (1756-1816) married Esther Kreider Herr (1763-1839) in Lancaster, PA on 1 August 1780. Esther is the daughter of Henry Herr (1713-1777) and Anna Kreider (1714-1744). Henry’s father is Isaac Herr (1691-1747) and Isaac’s father is the Reverend Hans Herr (1639-1725). The website displays the Herr Line back to Switzerland in 1400.
Martin K Reese’s parents were Benjamin Reese (1798-1856) and Sarah Kuhn (1809-1894). Benjamin’s parents were Andrew Reese (1777-1856) and Fannie Eshleman (1776-1847). The Eshleman line is especially entertaining: Fannie’s father was Martin Eshelman (note the slightly different spelling). Follow the paternal line back a couple of generations to Switzerland and Peter Aeschlimann (1644-1741). Keep going, always down the paternal line, and you’ll reach Heinrich Von Esch (1330-1392), somewhere in Medieval Northern Europe, a time when very nearly everyone was illiterate and unrecorded. Nobles, of course, with heredity and pedigree and destiny in mind, often had fairly comprehensive family records. Find a member of the aristocracy in your family and chances are you’ll get an impressively long way back.
That direct paternal Eshleman/Eshelman/Aeschlimann/Esch line reaches back to Robrechet van Nanur (932-980), Count of Lommegau; but the tree of his wife, Ermengard of Lotharingia (970-1012) reaches much further back: her parents were Charles I, Duke of Brabant of Lower Lorraine (953-992) and Bonne Adelaide, Duchess of Lorraine (974?-1063). Bonne Adelaide was the daughter of Hugh Capet, King of the Franks (939-996), and Adélaïde, Queen of France (952-1004).
So… how far back? Well here’s the route back from Esch to Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans, and son of Pepin III the Short and Bertrada II de Laon. Click on the images to open them in a separate window, and you might have to click through a few times to view them at full size…
Once you hit royalty, you’ll be amazed where it’ll take you. Since both of Bonne Adelaide’s parents were children of monarchs, any line you take will lead you to spectacular ancestry. Saxon kings, the first kings of England—before England was a country—and off to ancient and far-off realms.
Pursue Bonne Adelaide’s father’s line (Hugh Capet, King of the Franks), and you’ll reach ancient Rome. Here’s my son Dexter’s line all the way back to Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180).
By the way, in the above graphic, you’ll see Charlemagne’s parents—Pepin III the Short and Bertrada II de Laon—in a couple of different places that are quite hard to reconcile. That must be what it takes to keep a royal line going. Since monarchs and emperors have always found it easiest if they can claim a divine right to rule, it might suit them best to show proof. Going back from Charlemagne, for instance (not sure where the pinch-of-salt emoji is):
