From: Rita Effnert <kessie3@online.de> > I have now done what I should have done in the first place and have > written to the man who told me all about this possible connection. > His grandson has all the details now so I'm hoping he will let me have > it on-line in due course....... watch this space..... Rita in Germany> Thank you, Rita. I hope that when you get the information you will share it with us because this thread has clearly generated some interest, despite what my critic in Australia seems to think! Whether or not Guy Fawkes did indeed marry, have a son and possibly left descendants to this day is a question of huge historical importance and I find it quite astonishing that some people seem to get so touchy when research is questioned. I happen to think there is a vital question here, i.e. should we leave people who may be gullible about their family history to wallow in their own illusions or should we attempt to disillusion them and let them down gently? I was impressed by the fact that your friend in Germany actually went to the Borthwick to do some research but until we know what he learnt there we cannot comment further. I am quite prepared to believe that he does, in fact, descend from the FAUXE (or FAWKES) family but I would need a lot more convincing that Guy Fawkes himself was his ancestor. Could I stress, for the benefit of beginners, that we need to be very careful when we bandy around terms like "ancestor"? An ancestor means, literally, someone who is in the direct line of descent, i.e. in the direct blood line. Someone who was a member of the same family but not in the direct line is properly described as a COLLATERAL ancestor, meaning someone who came from the same family but was not in the direct line. If your German friend descends from someone who, say, was a brother, uncle, cousin or whatever of Guy Fawkes' father Edward, then he would be a collateral descendant. To give an example of what I mean, I myself am very (and I do mean VERY) distantly related to Sir Ernest Shackleton, the famous Antarctic explorer, because we both appear to descend from the marriage at Keighley in 1581 of RODGER SHACLEDEN [sic] and JENET SHARPE. However, I wouldn't dream of claiming him as an ancestor since I once worked out that we are something like 12th cousins eight times removed! -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE