How to write your Family History

Good evening readers, Its been a long few weeks, and once again I apologise for my absence from this page. To keep you all updated on my progress, I have been scheduled by my Orthopaedic Surgeon to have ‘keyhole’ surgery on my left shoulder at the end of May. Then heaps of rehab and a gradual return to work. Let's just put it this way, my shoulder and back only hurt when I laugh. This week, I have been reading up on my family history. Having taught this subject to unwitting students, about how and where to find their family, I have had a few requests from friends to complete research already started this year. Now I have a little time to spare.

With the launch of the Book Store on my website, we have had an enormous response with lots of traffic. My website is 14,000 most favoured on the World Wide Web. This analytic goes up and down every day. Claire Lane’s ‘The End of the Lane’ has risen the scale to an all-time high of No-16 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense.

With this completed, I have settled down to have a look at my ‘a thousand year’ relative. His name is Ernulf de Hesdin. Born in Hesdin, Pas de Calais, France, in 1038, This man was very notorious. A knight who took part in William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066, he became a major Landholder and is mentioned in my copy of The Doomsday Book. Although Ernulf's lands, like those of the great territorial magnates, were widely dispersed, a map shows the properties running south-west along the Cotswolds, through Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, then continuing to the Mendip Hills in Somerset and across to central Wiltshire. This had given him a significant presence at both ends of the medieval English wool trade. Ernulf, unfortunately, was represented in a shady ordeal by his own champion who defeated the king's representative. A big No, No back then. However, Ernulf was so disgusted at the accusation he was a traitor to the crown, that he renounced all his lands and left the country. Later that year he enlisted in the First Crusade, led by Robert of Normandy, the eldest son of William the Conqueror and met his end during the Siege of Antioch. (1098). Facing death, it is said, he refused the aid of a doctor, saying: "No doctor can reach me except he for whom I have undertaken this pilgrimage." Ernulf is my 30th Great grandfather down the Maternal Line. (Hewitt – my mother) His parents and grandparents, going back two more generations were all Seigneurs to the King. Seigneurs were given control of a Fief by the crown. When the feudal system was disbanded on the 4th Aug 1789 in the wake of the French Revolution, the office ceased to exist. Nowadays, the term is used as Grandseignuers meaning an elegant, urbane gentleman. Not, that I know of any. So, where I see the show on TV. ‘Who do you think you are?’ I know. And that’s only one side of the family tree. Thanks to Wikipedia for compiling this information. Images today, ‘Bridge Lane’ – Book 10 Claire Lane Mystery Series. Release date ‘when I finish it.’