JQ & List, It sounds erroneous to be sure!!! It would be comforting to believe such a "blanket theory" (see message below), but REALLY!!!! I have faith that people have more sense than that! After all, much of today's population in this country came from "hearty stock" that would have never survived the colonization of this continent had they been as gullible as your "well known" historian suggests! However, for those who can "prove" their lineage back to Charlemagne, are you aware that Charlemagne's origins can be traced several generation back? I concur with you, however, that finding one's more 'peasant' ancestry in this country can be rather interesting. For certain it is equally as important and often times much more exciting! I, too, have been searching for my Union & Essex County ancestry - but to no avail! I am still searching for information on my great-great-grandparents: Jeremiah RYAN and Mary HURLEY (parents of James Alfred RYAN, b. 1869; m. 9/20/1882 at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Short Hills, NJ; d. Abt. 1900 Springfield, NJ); and Patrick CLARK and Bridget SULLIVAN (parents of Mary Elizabeth CLARK, b. 10/6/1870 in Branch Mills, NJ; m. James Alfred RYAN 9/20/1882 in Short Hills; d. 7/27/1938 in Summit, NJ). All I know about the Clarks is that they were Protestant. I simply haven't enough information to request B-M-D records on my great-great-grandparents. Do these names sounds familiar to anyone on the list? I would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows of these families. Happy holidays to you all. Pamela Rhett Molzan In a message dated 12/17/1999 2:05:52 AM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: << Maybe this is erroneous. But I once read somewhere that a well-known historian had calculated that anyone with even a tiny bit of European ancestry (this would include almost all of the black and white population of the USA) has virtually a zero chance of NOT being a descendant of CHARLEMAGNE, ca. 742-814 AD. Now that I feel fairly secure in my royal lineage via Charlemagne dating back to the last millennium, I want to focus on the much interesting business of identifying a few more of my mostly peasant ancestors of what is now Union Co., NJ. John Q. >>