History Becomes More Alive for Me

Viking Ship represents Denmark's King Valdar (the Mild) Hroarsson, [547-568]
my Viking 41st great-grandfather  

Alfred the Great (849-901)
my 34th Great Grand Uncle

As I've written before, I've been on Ancestry.com tracing my family roots.  This has been one of the most interesting experiences of my life.  It's life altering.  Seeing the broad scope of all my history has given me a completely different outlook on life.  I now see myself as part of a long chain.  I'm not isolated, but a part of something bigger than myself.

I traced my family history back through England to France to the Danes and the Vikings and found out the Vikings migrated to Scandinavia from Afghanistan.  Before Afghanistan they were the Trojans.   Since I found out that King Sceldwea of Troy (born 20 B.C.) was my 65th Great Grandfather, I'm suddenly so interested in Trojan history.  Can you believe.

The most ironic thing happened in doing my family research:  Since I started this blog, I've had the ad for "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius (the 16th emperor of Rome) on the right side of this blog because it's one of my favorite books.  Then today in researching my family on Ancestry.com, I found out that Marcus Aurelius (86 -161 AD) was my 56th great-grandfather.  Constantine, who brought Christianity to the Roman Empire, was my 50th great-grandfather.  My mind has a very philosophical bent.  Now I'm wondering if that bent is something that could be in the genes.

Marcus Aurelius, Author of "Meditations"
My 56th Great-grandfather

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
― Marcus Aurelius

Edward III  (1312-1377)
 King of England
My 18th Great-Grandfather

The point of all of this is that by finding out that you have some kind of relationship to an historic character makes you that much more interested in history.  At least that's how it affects me.  As I read about my ancient ancestors, I'm increasing my knowledge of history more than when I just read out of history books that I feel no connection to.    If children knew about their family history before studying history, it would help them better to relate to history and they would find it that much more interesting.

If all of these people are related to me, that would also mean that they are all related to each other.  As I got into the Romans on Ancestry.com, I found lots of misinformation.

Marcus Antonius (aka Mark Anthony)
(January 14, 83 BC – August 1, 30 BC)
 Roman General
My 63rd Great Grandfather