So, I've been working with my DNA at WikiTree, building out my family tree. I've been dealing with my dad's side of the family which goes back about 10 generations to the early 1600s when our ancestor Joost DuRieux was born. His family faced religious persecution in France for being Protestant, so they migrated to Holland. From there, Joost and his family took a ship named the Gilded Otter to New Amsterdam. Then about 50 years later New Amsterdam changed its name to New York.
Pretty impressive right? Lots of history and a long family tree. Well, I'm almost done doing what I can with my dad's side of the tree, so I entered the generations of my mom's side of the family back to her great-great-great-grandfather on her dad's side. From there, her tree got pulled into the thousands and thousands of other people's DNA GEDCOMS, and her side of the family shot 63 generations back to the year 10 A.D. Yes, that's the year 10, "ten", of the Common Era. Hundreds and hundreds of people make up my mom's history with countless branches. It's an astounding find with so many twists and turns I'm sure I'll be immersed in it for years to come. Most of the tie-ins have to do with the fact that her family was in the ruling class in England for a couple of hundred years. But also, there are Vikings, French royalty including Clovis Hlodowig Franken, founder of the Merovingian Dynasty, as well as generations of Muslims involved. This entire thing is one of the most amazing things I've ever happened across.
I was particularly surprised to find I am a descendant of Harald Blåtann Gormsen (Wikipedia page), king of Denmark and Norway in the late 900s. In Norwegian, Blåtann means "blue tooth". His name is where the modern network name Bluetooth comes from. You might recognize the Bluetooth logo:
The logo is actually made of Nordic runes, and they are the initials of my 32nd great-grandfather Harald Blåtann Gormson VIII (WikiTree link, minor spelling variation in Gormson vs. Gormsen). Here is where the logo came from:
In the Younger Futhark runes, the H, for Harald, looks like this:
The B for Blåtann, looks like this:
The two initials combined make up the familiar logo we see today. Here's the story from Bluetooth.com of how the name was initially decided on:
In 1996, three industry leaders, Intel, Ericsson, and Nokia, met to plan the standardization of this short-range radio technology to support connectivity and collaboration between different products and industries.
During this meeting, Jim Kardach from Intel suggested Bluetooth as a temporary code name. Kardach was later quoted as saying, “King Harald Bluetooth…was famous for uniting Scandinavia just as we intended to unite the PC and cellular industries with a short-range wireless link.”
Bluetooth was only intended as a placeholder until marketing could come up with something really cool.
So, here is my family tree going back to Harald Blåtann Gormson VIII, born ca. 925 CE, and died ca. 988 CE. It's not a direct line, there are six or seven branches, but the relation is there. Each woman's name is a branch to a different family, but it's a distinct line back to Harald Bluetooth.
- Ancestry of King Harald Blåtand Gormsson VIII to Kent Duryee and his daughter and children, ca. 925 CE to 2022 CE
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- Harald Blåtan Gormsson VIII Thyra Haraldsdottir - Harald's daughter
- Thorgils Sprakelg Stybjornsson - Thyra's son
- Gytha Thrgilsdatter - Thjorgils' daughter
- Harold G. Wessex - Gytha's son
- Gemhild Haroldsdohtor - Harold's daughter
- Matilda Bretagne - Gemhild's daughter
- Ralph Deincourt - Matilda's son
- Walter Deincourt - Ralph's son
- John Deincourt - Walter's son
- Oliver Deincourt - John's son
- John Deincourt - Oliver's son
- Edmund Deincourt - John's son
- Isabel Deincourt - Edmund's daughter
- Thomas Fitzwilliam - Isabel's son
- Thomas Fitzwilliam - Thomas' son
- Thomas Fitzwilliam - Thomas' son
- Thomas Fitzwilliam - Thomas' son
- William Fitzwilliam - Thomas' son
- Katherine Fitzwilliam - William's daughter
- John Doughty - Katherine's son
- John Doughty - John's son
- Franciscus Doughty - John's son
- Francis Doughty - Fransciscus' son
- Ellias Doughty - Francis' son
- Jacob Doughty - Elias' son
- Abigail Doughty - Jacob's daughter
- Joseph King - Abigail's son
- William F. King - Joseph's son
- Elizabeth King - William's daughter
- James L. Ackley - Elizabeth's son
- Lawrence J. Ackley - James' son
- Kent L. Ackley - Lawrence's son
- Margery Ann Ackley - Kent's daughter
- Kent Duryee - Margery's son, "Me" 🙃
- Grace Steel - Kent's daughter
- Isaac Steel - Grace's son
- Edith Steel - Grace's daughter