On 08-Sep-17 8:06 AM, John Higgins wrote: > On Tuesday, September 5, 2017 at 4:25:00 PM UTC-7, Peter Stewart wrote: > >> In view of this, it would be interesting to know what proportion of >> American 'gateway' ancestors traced at least to the mid-14th century did >> not have a known line to Edward III. >> >> Peter Stewart > One possible answer to Peter's question might be provided by Douglas Richardson's "Plantagenet Ancestry". Of the roughly 150 surnames of gateway ancestors (excluding siblings) covered in at least the 1st edition of that work, only slightly more than half have descents from Edward III. The remainder derive their Plantagenet descents from an earlier monarch - or from a non-monarch Plantagenet descendant (e.g., Hamelin Plantagenet). Make of that what you will... :-) Thank you, John - 50%+ in a sample with no more than a few lines traced over an interval of 4+ centuries suggests to me that the 80% claim overall for descendants of non-emigrant English stock is probably not far from the mark. Peter Stewart

On 08-Sep-17 9:11 AM, Peter Stewart wrote: > On 08-Sep-17 8:06 AM, John Higgins wrote: >> On Tuesday, September 5, 2017 at 4:25:00 PM UTC-7, Peter Stewart wrote: >> >>> In view of this, it would be interesting to know what proportion of >>> American 'gateway' ancestors traced at least to the mid-14th century >>> did >>> not have a known line to Edward III. >>> >>> Peter Stewart >> One possible answer to Peter's question might be provided by Douglas >> Richardson's "Plantagenet Ancestry".  Of the roughly 150 surnames of >> gateway ancestors (excluding siblings) covered in at least the 1st >> edition of that work, only slightly more than half have descents from >> Edward III.  The remainder derive their Plantagenet descents from an >> earlier monarch - or from a non-monarch Plantagenet descendant (e.g., >> Hamelin Plantagenet). Make of that what you will... :-) > > Thank you, John - 50%+ in a sample with no more than a few lines > traced over an interval of 4+ centuries suggests to me that the 80% > claim overall for descendants of non-emigrant English stock is > probably not far from the mark. And I should add the following question then occurs: What factors (socio-economic, geographic or other) might cause some Americans to have a disproportionately high representation of the 50%- non-Edward III gateways in their ancestry? Peter Stewart