Membership

For membership information, please contact:  sinnersetal@aol.com

National Society of Saints and Sinners

Schedule of Approved Gateway Ancestors*

That May Be Used to Join the Society

(rev. 07/14)

Gateway Ancestors – Proved and Disproved

Tips from Our Genealogist
(Part 1)

23 Feb 2011

As we begin to grow in size, we are discovering that many of our applicants are choosing Bl. Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the West as their “Saint of Choice” for membership. Certainly, we would not discourage prospective members from choosing this illustrious ancestor as their propositus, but we find that most do not realize they have many, many other very interesting saints behind them. Periodically, we will post to our site a “Helpful Hint” to educate our members and prospective members about some of these equally interesting ancestors who also qualify as propositi in our Society.

Among our most popular propositus saints at present are:

Queen St. Margaret of Scotland
King St. Alfred the Great of England
St. Begga of Landen
St. Gregory “the Illuminator,” Bishop of Leontius
King St. Edgar “the Peaceful” of England
St. Clothilde of Burgundy

You may ask, “How do I descend from one of these saints?” Here is a brief (though certainly not all-inclusive) “kinexions” list for assistance:

If you descend from any one of the Plantagenet kings of England (Edward III backward to Henry II), you are a descendant of Queen St. Margaret of Scotland. There are, of course, other routes. You also descend if you intersect at earlier points, completely missing the Plantagenet kings, such as through Matilda, wife of Geoffrey V Plantagenet, or King David of Scotland (himself a saint).

If you descend from any of the people in the previous paragraph, you also descend from King St. Alfred the Great of England and King St. Edgar “the Peaceful” of England.

The Emperor Charlemagne is a direct descendant of St. Begga of Landen and St. Clothilde of Burgundy, so it is quite easy to get back to either of these very interesting women from history.

Finally, St. Gregory “the Illuminator,” Bishop of Leontius, is an interesting personage if for no other reason than the period in which he lived: c257-c331. If you descend from Eleanor of Castile, first wife of King Edward I of England, for instance, you are able to take your ancestry backward to a saint who lived nearly two millennia ago!

As noted, there are, no doubt, other avenues to get to many or all of these saints. These are merely a few highlights and helpful hints to assist people in discovering other possibilities for establishing membership or supplementary membership. If you wish to recognize any of the above saints, I stand at the ready to assist you in completing your application.

(Part 2)

The Gateway Ancestor

17 March 2011
revised 21 May 2011

During first contact with many of our prospective members, we are confronted with questions about what a Gateway Ancestor is. Comments like “I don’t know what a Gateway Ancestor is, so I must not have one,” are common. Believe it or not, in two short sentences, we can assist people in understanding what the term “Gateway Ancestor” means –

Very simply, a “Gateway Ancestor” is your immigrant ancestor who has royal descent. He or she, then, is your American “gateway” to royalty.

Several useful resources exist to assist individuals in determining whether they have Gateway Ancestors. The “short list” includes:

Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families (4 vols., newly revised and enlarged, 2011)

Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families (3 vols., newly revised and enlarged, 2011)

Gary Boyd Roberts, Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States (2004 and 2008 editions)

Patricia Ann Scherzinger, Colonial Americans of Royal and Noble Descent: Alleged, Proven and Disproven

Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 (7th and 8th editions)

Because our knowledge of genealogy is ever-changing, we use these resources and many others in our attempt to capture the most recent learning concerning Gateway Ancestors.

(Part 3)

11 Apr 2011

Some of the Saintly Ancestors of King John of England

Alan Koman’s A Who’s Who of Your Ancestral Saints provides a list of the saintly ancestors of many notable personages in history, but the average family historian may have some difficulty following the book’s layout if it is not studied carefully for the kinships among those notables.  Many modern genealogical works focusing on royal descent carry the Gateway Ancestors’ lineages to their most recent royal ancestor and then stop.  From that point, we find ourselves in the can of worms that leads us backward to Charlemagne (for example) through many endogamous relationships.

To assist our existing and future members, this brief article seeks to provide a partial list of the ancestors of King John of England who have been canonized, beatified, martyred, or accepted into the pre-congregational body of saints.  This article, and the list contained herein, will be updated from time to time as our members submit applications (either initial or supplementary) through saints not already shown.

King John of England, arguably the worst king in the history of that nation, was the son of King Henry II and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Each of these notable historical figures has saintly ancestors from whom King John descends.  In addition, as King John is the ancestor of all the subsequent Plantagenet kings (Henry III, Edward I, Edward II and Edward III), his saintly ancestors obviously also are found behind those kings.  Although in each generation, the mother of these Plantagenet Kings also possesses saintly ancestry, this brief article is intended merely to identify those behind King John through either of his parents.  We refer you to our Propositus Schedule of Approved Saints found elsewhere on this site for additional information concerning each of the saints listed below.

St. Adela of Austrasia (?-735)

Queen St. Ælfgifu/Elgiva of England (?-944)

King St. Alfred “the Great” of England (c849-899)

St. Arnulf, Bishop of Metz (582-640)

St. Begga of Landen (613-693/4)

Bl. Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the West (742-814)

St. Clothilda of Burgundy (c475-545)

King St. Edgar “the Peaceful” of England (c943/4-975)

St. Gondolfus, Bishop of Tongres (c524-604/7)

Ingegerd of Sweden, known as St. Anne of Kiev (c1000-1050)

St. Liéven/Leutwinus, Bishop of Treves (c660-713/22)

Queen St. Margaret of Scotland (c1045-1093)

King St. Olaf III “Skötkonung” (the Martyr) of Sweden (c980-1021/2)

Olga of Izborsk, Regent of Kiev, known as St. Helen/Elena of Kiev (c890-969)

St. Vladimir I, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kiev (c955-1015)

St. William I “Longsword,” Duke of Normandy (c893-942)

We urge our current and future members to explore Koman’s work with an eye toward submitting applications through saints not already on this list, but who are also direct-line ancestors of King John and the other Plantagenet Kings.

– A. Bannerman, Genealogist of the Society