We all have, or claim to have famous persons dangling precariously from branches of our family trees. My middle name, for example, is a family one – Hardy. My grandmother, my father’s mother, was a Hardy that reputedly came over on the Mayflower. Visiting the harbor in Plymouth, England some years ago, I found no Hardys on the manifest, so that’s probably a myth. However, one distinct feature in the family is the beaky nose. We’ve referred to it has the “Hardy” nose. My father, grandmother, two great-uncles, great grandfather, and more cousins that I can count had it. Looking up images of the famous author, Thomas Hardy, for which I should mention dramatically here, drum roll please, I’m NOT named, he too had the renowned Hardy nose. Are we related? Perhaps distantly, as the family goes back to the Norman Conquest. So too in my mother’s family, the Doyles from southern Ireland, Arthur is a family name – my grandfather’s middle name and my great-grandfather’s first name. Are we related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? It’s possible, and family folklore has long claimed it. Continue reading “Tracing Her Roots”
I'm Thinking...No! 