I can’t say enough good things about this book. It’s not only a go-to resource for me, but it’s virtually daily reading material. Though I’ve never really publicly discussed much of anything, my mother’s family — both maternal and paternal — were prominent families related to a million other prominent families, as was so very common since they spent over a thousand years intermarrying, let alone interbreeding, etc. I’ve always been familiar with many of the colonial noble families, particularly the Virginia ones, but over the past few years I’ve invested a massive amount of time, effort, labor, etc., into going way further back, almost entirely on my own since virtually everyone I could ask things are now dead. (On my own meaning really no other family members to solicit, not a lack of resources.) What I’ve discovered over the past few years has shocked me in many ways. There has been generations of research on both sides of my family into our past, with books written on both sides, and I grew up knowing about some prominent (and not-very-prominent – hah!) ancestors, but they were all limited to America. This resource has aided me, along with hundreds of other resources, in going back — very far — through many of the Plantagenet noble families to even far beyond them. At this point, I’m working on two primary different lines, one of which I’ve traced down into the 600s, the other of which is at about 800 now. (It’s time consuming.)

My mother was a member of the Page family, the Lipscomb family, the Carlisle family, and with all of the affiliated families, also a million ancestors from the Randolph, Nelson, Harrison, Jefferson, Bolling, Cary, Carter, Wilson, Custis, Isham, Rolfe, Dandridge, Todd, Lee, Bland, Bradford, Worthington, and other families. But this resource has aided me with specific Plantagenet descendent-ancestors who migrated to America during the seventeenth-century, but also their ancestors. As a result, I know so much more about how the families I just mentioned (and any of mine specifically) were/are related to very old families such as the Neville, Percy, Boleyn, Stafford, Seymour, Beaufort, Dudley, Mowbray, Arundel, FitzAlan, and so many other ancient families I knew a few things about but not in reference to me or my immediate ancestors. It’s been very educational and interesting (and at times a little surreal and weird). I’ve been working on numerous genealogies, and this is one of the best resources (along with ones on the Randolph and Cary families, as well as Mayflower and Jamestown descendants) for me and I definitely recommend it for anyone else researching these sorts of things with best wishes in your efforts. At the present, I have about 37,000 ancestors in my family tree and I barely felt like I’ve scratched the surface. A daunting task, but a fun project as well.

5/5 STARS

[8/3/25 UPDATE: I haven’t had the time in 2025 to continue doing research at the pace and depth I’ve tried to do so the last decade, but I do hope to return to updating it, eliminating redundancies, making corrections, and finding new ancestors/lines, etc. If possible. At the time I wrote this last year, I stated my Ancestry.com had over 37,000 names in my family tree. Admitting inaccuracies, such as multiple listings of the same person, that it would be great to address, the site reports that as of this moment today in 2025, my family tree contains 61,836 people. I’ve been able to research my paternal line back into the 1300s while I’ve been able to “allegedly” research several maternal lines a long damn way back, especially through the Saxon kings, which go back to before the birth of Jesus, which I find hard as hell to believe, but I’ll post that line sometime. I’ve gotten all the way back to — allegedly — my 61st great grandfather, some of whom at that far back may have been more legend than historical person, but it’s unknown for some and it’s plausible for some researchers. Another line of Scandinavian kings allegedly goes back into the 300s CE or thereabouts. I find it interesting but no one else does or I’d post about it more often. I don’t blame you, dear reader, but freaking nobody but me reads these few, rare genealogical posts, and since I already know it as I’m the one doing years of research, it seems pointless to write about it only for me when I can simply continue with the original research instead. More practical. If anyone reads this section and would care to see funky other stuff from way back, let me know. Otherwise I doubt I’ll post much more about the topic. Cheers!]