History

The Founding of the Society

In the Spring of 2010, during the Hereditary Society fortnight in Washington, DC, Alan Koman, a Georgia general-practice lawyer, was the scheduled guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Baronial Order of the Magna Charta and Military Order of the Crusades. His presentation, given by Timothy Field Beard, was a discussion of his recently released book entitled, “A Who’s Who of Your Ancestral Saints.” Among those in attendance was Jane Routt Power from Texas. Soon thereafter, Jane contacted Alex Bannerman, Jan Downing, Melissa Fischer, John Hallberg Jones and Kitti Michalowicz – all of whom she knew personally from her involvement in numerous lineage societies – with the idea of establishing a new organization. What to name it may have been the first challenge. Clearly the concept of Saints must be part of its name, but what about their descendants? With some careful consideration (and a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor for which Jane has always been revered), the name settled on was “The National Society of Saints and Sinners.” The Sinners, then, would be the term used to represent the living descendant membership.  

The concept of the Society was very well received, and after a number of electronic discussions, requests were made for founding Board Members.  Soon thereafter, by-laws were written thereby establishing the society whose official date of organization is 24 May 2010. 

Mr. Bannerman volunteered to assist in the design and creation of the Society’s insigne and membership certificate, which evolved over the course of several weeks into what they are today.  Upon creating a simplified, one-page application through which prospective members who have already established royal descent could join the Society, invitations were sent to more than two hundred interested parties.  Very soon thereafter, an excellent website was designed to assist in answering many questions of inquiring individuals, and to get the word out to the masses about the existence of this unique organization.  In less than a year after its founding, the Society has established nearly 100 members, with many more pending.

As part of its mission, the Society encourages prospective members to discover more about their saintly ancestors through several educational avenues, including, among other things, biographies and compendia of the lives of the saints, Internet websites dedicated to the saints and to royalty, and, of course, Mr. Koman’s excellent volume, referenced above.  As time permits, our list of qualifying saints will be enlarged, and the Society will attempt to provide substantially useful information to assist those interested in connecting their established ancestry to include saints and those beatified.  While the Society is not a religious organization and does not identify specifically with any religious faith, we believe it is necessary, strictly from an historical and genealogical perspective, to recognize these ancestors for their individual contributions to the evolution and growth of the world as we know it today.  Those contributions are legion.