Vita Brevis: Mayor Pete’s cousins

Photo: © 2019 Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons.

The US elections are all over us again. All the votes from the Iowa Democratic caucus this Monday have not been counted yet – as I write these lines about 75 % have been counted for – but it appears that the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg (pronounced Boot-edge-edge, would you believe it) has won in terms of number of State Delegate Equivalents. I have my doubts about him winning the Democratic nomination in the end, and at present I am not very optimistic about the chances of a Democrat winning the presidential elections in November 2020, but would love to be proven wrong.

Regardless of the outcome of the presidential elections, the genealogy of Buttigieg, whose father was born in Malta, is very interesting. Even if Christopher C. Child's Vita Brevis blog article «Mayor Pete's cousins» is a bit old – it was published in June 2019 – it is still both relevant and worth reading. I very much look forward to reading Child's articles on the genealogy of the other Democratic candidates. The Vita Brevis blog is, by the way, published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

More on Meghan Markle's ancestry and other genealogical connections

In my blog article of 30 November this year titled NEHGS: Royal Roots Run Deep for Meghan Markle, I mentioned Christopher C. Child's article The Wentworth Connection in NEHGS' blog Vita Brevis.

Since then several articles about Meghan Markle's ancestry have appeared at Vita Brevis:

• 6 December 2017: A family affair by David Allen Lambert
• 8 December 2017: A missing Merrill by Christopher C. Child
• 15 December 2017: The Hastings connection by Christopher C. Child 
• 19 December 2017: An unsavory connection by Katrina Fahy

I am sure there will be more articles – and maybe also a book? – covering Meghan Markle's ancestry and other genealogical connections as we get closer to the wedding. The engagement of Prince Henry («Harry») of Wales, youngest son of the Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and the American-born actress Meghan Markle, was announced on 27 November 2017. The wedding will take place at St. George's Chapel at Windsor on 19 May 2018, Kensington Palace announced on 15 December. Six days later three official photographs to mark their engagement were released. The photos can be viewed here, here as well as here!

NEHGS: Royal Roots Run Deep for Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle, whose engagement to Prince Harry of Wales was announced earlier this week, has deep royal roots according to an article the New England Historic Genealogical Society published today.

«Researchers at New England Historic Genealogical Society have announced that Meghan Markle is descended from King Edward III

Markle is a cousin of her future husband, Prince Harry, more than 240 times over

She is related to Prince Harry through lines shared with both HM The Queen and the late Diana, Princess of Wales

She is related to eight American presidents, three first ladies, and a cast of other notable Americans, including actors James Dean and Roy Rogers.»

Earlier this week I asked the genealogical society on Twitter if there was «Any chance of a book on Meghan Markle's ancestry like Reitwiesner/Child did with the former Catherine Middleton?» So far NEHGS has responded by clicking on the like button. But maybe a more detailed account of Meghan Markle's ancestry will be published closer to the wedding?

Having said that, I hope that the genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts, who is a Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), will return with more details about the sources for his claims made in the article mentioned above. His short entry about Ms. Markle's ancestry can be viewed here.

Postscript 30 November 2017 at 22.10: Christopher C. Child has just published the article The Wentworth Connection in NEHGS' blog Vita Brevis. Child gives more details with references to published books and has also provided a chart which shows one of the many connections between Ms. Markle and Prince Harry. Child also writes: «I’ve also been working on Meghan Markle’s American ancestors, so stay tuned!» So there is maybe hope for something more on Meghan's ancestry some time in the future?

Updated on 30 November 2017 at 22.10 (link to Roberts' entry and the postscript were added), last time on Monday 4 December 2017 at 12.50 (typos corrected).

Genealogen no. 2, 2016

The latest issue of Genealogen, the newsletter of Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening (The Norwegian Genealogical Society), arrived in my mailbox today. On the front cover there is a photo of Steinvikholm Castle at Skatval in Stjørdal municipality north of Trondheim.

My contribution this time is a short (2 pages long) presentation of New England Historic Genealogical Society, the oldest of its kind in the United States. I have been a member since early spring this year, and I visited the society's headquarters in central Boston in early August. Unfortunately there was no room for the photos I had provided for the article, but I will instead include them when I in the not too distant future write a presentation of the society for Slektshistoriewiki, the Norwegian Genealogy Wiki.

Among the other articles are:

• Manhaffte korporal Niels Christensen Krog ca. 1658–1733 by Petter Vennemo (about one of the Krog families in Norway).
• Bolkesjø-gårdene i Gransherad («The Bolkesjø farms in Gransherad [Telemark county]») by Odd Arne Helleberg.
• Sikt- og sakefallslister i lens- og amtsregnskapene på 1600-tallet (an introduction to lists of fines paid to the king for various crimes in the 17th century) by Rune Nedrud, who is also chairman of the Norwegian Genealogical Society as well as head editor of the newsletter.
• Landsturnstevnet og Trøndelagsutstillingen i Trondheim 1930 – og to flybåter i svenske farvann (about the finding of old negatives, which among others included the national gymnastics meeting and the Trøndelag Fair in Trondheim in 1930, and we get some insight into the author's Berg family too) by Carsten Berg Høgenhoff, editor of Genealogen.
• Hvem eier egentlig slektstreet du har på nettet? by Melanie Mayo (originally published as «Who Actually Owns the Family Tree You Have Online?», Family History Daily August 2016)
• Bot og bedring?, a book review by Johan Marius Setsaas of Olof Holm et al. Böter och fredsköp. Jämtlands och Härjedalens saköreslängder 1601–1645, Landsarkivet i Östersund och Jämtlands läns fornskriftsällskap, Östersund, 2016.
• Norwegian Death Index (NDI), an introduction by its database owner and editor Kjell Arne Brudvik.

In addition you will find the minutes as well as an article about the annual meeting, which took place in Trondheim in May this year and a list of books donated to the society's library during the period May–October 2016.

Not to forget the ad for Genea-LAN, the social gathering for genealogists which take place in the weekend of 19th and 20th of November. 28 hours with non-stop genealogical research, in addition to lectures, a «DNA corner», competitions and much more. It is the fifth time the LAN party takes place, probably the first of its kind!