THE VIKINGS-A Part Of My Family History

 So much history in the world and so many stories that go with that history. It seems that every time I read about some famous figure of history, I end up finding a personal connection to that person that leads me down a path of amazing discovery.

One such discovery happened yesterday when I was looking at starting to watch a series on Amazon called "The Vikings". 

I decided to look into this show a bit to get a little background on the characters of this historical drama before starting down the path of watching it. Much to my delight, my research revealed that the main characters being portrayed are ancestral kin to me and my family through my mother's family history. 

Come along as I discover some of the characters from this historical drama that I and my family share intimate familial connections with.....

 

 

My Viking Family History & Pedigree

Introduction

The Viking's Television series tells the story of Ragnar Lodbrock, the semi mythical-historical Viking Raider, who is said to be descended from Norse-Danish-Sweedish royalty. 

Rangar was supposed to have lived from mid 700 AD to about mid 800 AD, being anywhere from 50-100 years old when he died. The sagas and stories of Rangar and his sons and descendants are written about in various "near contemporary" chronicles of the time, including: 

• Book IX of the Gesta Danorum, a 12th-century work by the Christian Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus
• the Tale of Ragnar's sons (Ragnarssona þáttr), a legendary saga
• the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok , another saga, a sequel to the Völsunga saga
• the Ragnarsdrápa, a skaldic poem of which only fragments remain, attributed to the 9th-century poet Bragi Boddason
• the Krákumál, Ragnar's death-song, an old and mysterious skaldic poem

 

The stories surrounding Rangar tell about how he and his sons and the contemporary "Viking Nobles" of the time raided and plundered the island of Britain and the country of France in the 8th and 9th centuries. Their exploits would lead to the mass "intermingling" of Scandinavian bloodlines being mixed into Anglo-Saxon and Norman bloodlines and would forever change the course of the history of the world.

The further I research this "Viking History", the more I realize how very connected the Viking Sagas are to all of Europe's history. The descendants of these people would eventually lead to all of the royal houses of Europe and Russia and that of the world we inhabit today.

 

My Pedigree To Rangar

Ragnar "Lodbrok" Sigurdsson is your 36th great grandfather

 ↓

Åslaug Sigurdsdatter is your 36th great grandmother

(wife of Rangar)

↓

Álöf Ragnarsdóttir is your 35th great grandmother

 (daughter of Rangar and Aslaug)

 

I find that the way that Geni.com shows pedigrees is a little easier to understand (they go from present to past in lineal fashion) and so thus below one will see my ancestral connection to Rangar from myself and my mother in the current era all the way back to Rangar in the ninth century. 

In order to make this ancestral blood connection, I would have a total of 76 direct ancestors in order for this to be possible!

That is a lot of history.....one can only imagine the stories and the loves and losses and adventures that went along with their lives. For historical reference and to give perspective, I have included the years in the history of the world in which they were alive and where they were born and died if known.

 

You →

(1966-Present) 

Marlene Grace Repinski 
(1936-1999/ Wisconsin) your mother→

Raymond Harold Dietz 
(1912-1973/ Wisconsin) her father→

Grace Elizabeth Dietz
(1891-1963/Wisconsin)his mother→

Isadore Pope
(1859-1906/Wisconsin) her mother→

Edward Young Smith
(1833/Mass-1888/Wis) her father→

Harrison Smith
(1784-1851/ Mass) his father→

Samuel Smith, Jr
(1760-1838/Mass) his father→

Samuel Smith
(1728-1796/Mass) his father→

Katherine Smith
(1699-????/ Mass) his mother→

Katherine Homes
(1672/Ireland-1754/Mass) her mother→

Agnes Craighead
(1648-1702/ Ireland) her mother→

Reverend John Heart
(1617/Scotland-1687/Ireland) her father→

 Jean Mowat
(1595-1682/Scotland) his mother→

Christian Stewart
(1555-1634/ Scotland) her mother→

Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney
(1533-1593/ Scotland) her father→

James V, King of Scots
(1512-1542/ Scotland) his father→

James IV, King of Scotland
(1473/ Scotland-1513/ England) his father→

Margaret af Danmark (Queen of Scotland) og Norge von Oldenburg
(1456/ Denmark-1486/ Scotland) his mother→

Dorothea (Queen of Denmark) of Brandenburg
(1430-1495/ Denmark) her mother→

Barbara Margravine of Saxe-Wittenberg von Sachsen-Wittenberg, Markgräfin zu Brandenburg-Kulmbach
(1405-1465/ Germany) her mother→

Rudolf III von Sachsen-Wittenberg, Herzog zu Sachsen-Wittenberg und Kurfürst zu Sachsen  

(1367-1419/ Germany) her father→

Wenceslas von Sachsen-Wittenberg, I, Herzog, Kurfürst zu Sachsen, Herzog zu Braunschweig-Lünebur
(1337-1388/ Germany) his father→

Rudolf I of Saxony Wittenberg, Duke
(1274-1356/ Germany) his father→

Herzog Albrecht II von Sachsen-Wittenberg, Herzog und Kurfürst zu Sachsen, Herzog zu Sachsen-Wittenberg
(1250-1298/ Heiliges Römisches Reich/ Germany) his father→

Albrecht I, Duke of Saxony-Wittenberg
(1175/ Denmark-1260/ Heiliges Römisches Reich/Germany) his father→

Count Bernard of Anhalt, Duke of Saxony
(1140-1211/ Germany) his father→

Albrecht I "The Bear", Margrave of Brandenburg
(1100-1170/ Germany) his father→

Elika Magnusdr von Ballenstedt, Duchess of Saxony
(1075-1143/ Germany) his mother→

Magnus Billung, of Saxony
(1042-1106/ Germany) her father→

Ulfhild van Sarpsbergen van Noorwegen
(1020/ Norway-1072/ Germany) his mother→

Saint Olaf II, King of Norway
(995-1030/ Norway) her father→

Åsta Gudbrandsdóttir, Queen of Norway
(978-1025/ Norway) his mother→

Ulfhilde Thorasdottir
(927-978/ Norway) her mother→

Thora Audunarsdottir Mosháls
(890/Iceland-930/ Norway) her mother→

Auðun Bjarnason Skökull
(860-920-Norway) her father→

Björn Hunda-Steinarson
(830/ England-890/ Sweeden) his father→

Álöf Ragnarsdóttir
(790/ Denmark- 850/ England) his mother→

Ragnar "Lodbrok" Sigurdsson
(800-Unknown but probably Norway-845/ England) her father

 

From Wikipedia article about Ragnar

 

My 36th Great Grandpa's Story on Wikipedia 

 

Ragnar Lodbrok,^[a] according to legends,^[2] was a Viking hero and a Danish and Swedish king.^[3] He is known from Old Norse poetry of the Viking Age, Icelandic sagas, and near-contemporary chronicles. According to the traditional literature, Ragnar distinguished himself by conducting many raids against the British Isles and the Holy Roman Empire during the 9th century. He also appears in Norse legends, and according to the legendary sagas Tale of Ragnar's Sons and a Saga about Certain Ancient Kings, Ragnar Lodbrok's father has been given as the legendary king of the Swedes, Sigurd Ring

 

 

 

Sources and further reading:

https://www.geni.com/people/Ragnar-Lodbrok-Sigurdsson/5604233735830047570?through=6000000001088519030

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar_Lodbrok

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Ragnar-Lothbrok/

Port Royal Earthquake of 1692 & My 9th Great Grandparents Ralph & Mary Houghton/Horton

 

Introduction

It can be said that a person's family history is full of surprises if one looks deep enough. In the many years that I have been exploring my family annals I have come across many of these fascinating stories. 

The story that follows is one I have discovered of one set of 9th Great Grandparents, Ralph and Mary (Blackburn) Houghton who lived upon this earth in the late 17th and early 18th Century of our world history. 

Ralph and Mary are just two of the 2,048 9th Great Grandparents that lived and through them and 2046 other 9th Great Grandparents, myself and my siblings and their children were made possible.

Suffice to say that the story below is rather short but it is one of those that due to a divine providence of some sort, has allowed for me to be writing of their story now.

 Port Royal Jamaica

7 June 1692

 Port Royal...The biggest and wealthiest trading port in the West Indies in the late 1600s. A port where the likes of Captain Henry Morgan (who's namesake carries the spiced rum that is most likely in your liquor cabinet) plied their trades as pirates and buccaneers and who's debauchery and sinful ways labeled this city the "Sodom & Gamorah" of the new world.

Port Roya Earthquake Wikipedia Article

It was here on the eastern seaboard of the island of Jamaica that a most terrible natural disaster of immense significance took place. The following account is taken from a Thompson family history that I discovered while researching for this story.....

On the 7th of June (1692) a tremendous earthquake shook Port Royal, in Jamaica, to its foundations; it buried nine tenths of the city under water, and made awful devastations over the whole island. Northward of the town, above 1000 acres were sunk. 

Two thousand souls perished. In the space of three minutes, this beautiful town was shattered to pieces, and sunk. The earthquake took place about half an hour after 11, A.M.-(Holmes's Annals, i. 445; Univ. Hist., xli. 318, 361-366; Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., iv, 223-230).

“ It was said that One of our Dorchester people, Ralph Houghton, Jr., was buried in the ruins, as we learn from the following memoranda found pinned to the cover of an old manuscript; viz.: 'In 1692, Mrs. Mary Horton, widow of Mr. Ralph Horton, huo was sunke in ye eartbquake at Jemeco the seventh day of June, betwen a Eleven and twelve a clock at nune in 1692. Ye above named person was then 28 years of age from March ye last past.'”-Hist. of Dorchester, p. 259.

There is a discrepancy here. According to the first statement above, Mrs. Mary Houghton was the person who was saved at the sinking of Port Royal, at the time of the earthquake. This proves to be accurate as one will see below.

The quotation above from the old manuscript, as printed in the History of Dorchester, may be made to read either way, as referring to Mr. Houghton, or to his widow. 

Further research on the above gives more insight to the above story. Read on......

 

My 9th Great Grandparents-Mary Blackburn Houghton & Ralph Houghton

Mary Blackburn-Houghton

Ralph Houghton 

From The Thompson Family History

Mrs. Mary Houghton (her maiden name was Blackburn), was one of the three whose lives were saved at the sinking of Port Royal, † in Jamaica, by an earthquake in 1692.

{From what I can surmise from my research, Mary and Ralph had decided to be adventurous souls and made Jamaica their home. Ralph was said to be a mariner and it seems that Mary may have worked in one of the taverns or local Inns and that Port Royal was the port that Ralph sailed from on his sea journeys. Maybe Ralph was a pirate and plied the waters of the West Indies with the likes of Captain Henry Morgan...it has been said that Ralph, earlier in life, had been a part of what was called "The Accadian Expedition"....}

Mary heard and felt the earthquake, and rushed to the door, and as the place sunk in the water she clung to the sill of the house, which separated from the building. 

She remained in the water three days and three nights, when a vessel passed by and she was taken on board. Her trunk of clothing floated within her reach and was saved. 

She afterwards lived at a tavern at Dorchester, Mass. and waited upon passengers. Several years had elapsed when her "DEAD husband" entered the tavern to put up for the night. They immediately recognized each other, and the effect was such that they both fainted; he having expected she was lost at the time of the earthquake, and she expected he was lost at sea, being gone on a voyage at the time of the disaster. 

 On June 30, 1695, Mary and Ralph Houghton would give birth to a daughter. They would name her Mary.

Mary and Ralph would also have another daughter, Martha, who was born in 1693.

Mary Blackburn Houghton/Horton died in 1767, at the advanced age of 105 years.-(From the Franklin Mercury, printed at Greenfield, Mass., Oct. 25, 1836.)Having survived the Port Royal Earthquake of 1692, she lived another 72 amazing years.....it is amazing to think that if she had not survived this historic disaster in 1692, I would not be here to write about this family memory.

My 9th Great Grandfather, Ralph, was said to have died about 1699 in Dorchester. His wife Mary outlived him by almost 70 years.

 

My Family Line to Mary and Ralph

1. John is the son of Marlene Grace (Dietz) Repinski (1936-1999) 
2. Marlene is the daughter of Raymond Harold Dietz (1912-1973) 
3. Raymond is the son of Grace Elizabeth (Pope) Dietz (1891-1963) 
4. Grace is the daughter of Henry Allen Pope (1862-1927) 
5. Henry is the son of Thomas Paschal Pope (1838-1906) 
6. Thomas is the son of Thomas Faunce Pope (1807-abt.1881) 
7. Thomas is the son of Mitchell Pope (1767-1849) 
8. Mitchell is the son of Mary (Thompson) Pope (1740-aft.1772) 
9. Mary is the daughter of Mary (Blackman) Thompson (1721-aft.1767) 
10. Mary is the daughter of Mary (Houghton) Blackman (1695-aft.1767) 
11. Mary is the daughter of Mary (Blackburn) Houghton (abt.1664-abt.1767) 
This makes Mary the ninth great grandmother of John.

 

 

Sources and further reading:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Grs-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=Mary+Houghton+and+Port+Royal+earthquake+of+1692&source=bl&ots=OFJjjgJHv5&sig=ACfU3U3lzMA3wta1bJKPAfiwCEQJ8kKuCw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8-Z7jjIbwAhXkAp0JHUcYBHkQ6AEwBnoECAcQAw#v=onepage&q=Mary%20Houghton%20and%20Port%20Royal%20earthquake%20of%201692&f=false

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Houghton-197

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blackburn-941

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/2BJ2-8DH

https://archive.org/details/houghtongenealog00houg/page/84/mode/2up?view=theater

https://www.scribd.com/document/185283/The-Port-Royal-Earthquake-History-Today