Royals, Rebels & Rogues
Despite the stay-at-home order here in Ontario (which I have been following, BTW!), I have found most of my time occupied by office work and house work. I am one of the lucky ones who has been able to maintain my income by working from home and for that I am grateful. What I hadn't expected was the number of hours I am putting in working, but it does make the time go by quickly, which is also a good thing.
My house has also never been this tidy every day of the week! With 2 dogs happy to have 24/7 company, and the change of seasons bringing both muddy paws and shedding coats, keeping up the housework seems to occupy the time that is not spent working! All is good though, and aside from the occassional desire to go out for dinner or go and visit family and friends, I am adjusting well to social isolation.
To avoid burning myself out with work, or thinking too much about not leaving my humble abode, I have started spending more time with my ongoing family history research. I am still finding additional surprises, and I am attempting to document more of these fascinating people. My most recent discovery was that Lee Marvin is a distant cousin of mine, and when you add him to my cousins Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, it would be difficult to watch an old Western movie without seeing some family members.
Daytime TV, which I admit I have on in my temporary home office, also brings glimpses of distant family members Lucille Ball and Elizabeth Montgomery. When I am not watching TV, I find yet more distant - and living - cousins Carnie Wilson, Valerie Bertinelli and Mary Chapin Carpenter interacting with their fans on Twitter and Instagram. It seems that I cannot help but run across a famous distant relative these days! Maybe - and that's a big maybe - after all this virus crap is over, I may one day have the pleasure of meeting one of my famous cousins. It may not happen, but the thought of being able to meet one of them and review our shared family history is yet another reason to see this disaster through.
Until that time I am continuing to research and document my family history. It seems that the more research I do, the more answers I find. I want to focus more on my royal lineage (of which I have many grandparents who were Kings and Queens) as their history is, for the most part, well documented. Some of these royal discoveries have also answered genetic questions that I have had and, in particular, mine and my father's Scandinavian DNA results. I have managed to trace back my paternal lineage to my 33rd Great Grandfather, Rollo, Duke of Normandy, Count of Rouen. He lived from 860-930 and was a Viking conqueror who took my 33rd Great-Grandmother, Poppa of Bayeaux, who was his captive, as his wife.
With so many family members who were (and still are) royals, rebels, actors, singers, writers, politicians, business magnates, warriors, inventors and even murderers, it's difficult to choose who to document next on my webpage, but it's nice to have so many from which to choose!
Stay tuned, and stay safe!
