Like a challenge? Interested in Magna Carta Ancestry? Consider joining the Magna Carta Project.

Question

Do you like a challenge? Interested in Magna Carta ancestry? Consider joining the Magna Carta Project.

The main goal of the Magna Carta Project is to have a project-verified (aka "badged") trail from a Magna Carta Surety Baron to each of the 250 or so Gateway Ancestors documented by Douglas Richardson in his Magna Carta Ancestry or Royal Ancestry. (See the list of these Gateways in the table at Category:Gateway Ancestors.) Our Project has been working on these trails since 2014, and there is still a lot of work to be done.

You can read more about the project on the Magna Carta Project home page.

Membership in the Project is demanding: we are keen to have high quality profiles that are a credit to WikiTree. Members need to be able to write good, sourced biographies, and to be comfortable finding and investigating pre-1700 sources beyond the obvious ones and handling uncertainties and conflicts of evidence.

Before asking to join, please read more about membership and what it involves on our Project Members page. If this type of commitment appeals to you, please post an ANSWER below (note that comments will be read once and hidden).

Not yet ready to commit to the Project? You can celebrate your connection to Magna Carta surety barons using a Relationship Sticker or Connection Sticker and/or follow the magna_carta G2G tag.

Comments

Hello,  I’m new to this sight and some how I’m related to the plantangents through both sides of my family.   This is very interesting.

Answer 1

Hi,                                                                                               GOING BACK IN MY ANCESTRY,I APPEAR TO BE RELATED TO THE FITZWILLIAM & ALSO WENTWORTH FAMILIES. APPARENTLY A FITZWILLIAM KNIGHT DID SIGN OFF AS A WITNESS TO THE MAGNA CARTA  BEING SIGNED BY KING JOHN IN 1215AD.

Comments

Hello,

i am related to several Knights, Barons who signed the Magna Carter. Sir Thomas Cheyney; Sir Thomas Throckmorton 1514; Baroness Tracey:; sir Thomas Whitington; sir Humphey Arundel 1364! Through my grandmother!

Regards

Louise

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Louise I descend from Cheyne/ Kerr line  it would be interesting to see if we relate.  neither relationship finder or connection finder was able to connect us  my cheyne line closest relative is  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cheyne-76 my 3x great grandmother

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Hi, My relative under Cheney is: Sir Thomas Cheney (or Cheyne) KG (c. 1485 – 16 December 1558) of the Blackfriars, City of London and Shurland, Isle of Sheppey, Kent,^[1] was an English administrator and diplomat, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in south-east England from 1536 until his death. A favourite of Ann Boleyn. 

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mine are Scottish

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Hi Laura,

My Scottish side via Stephen is New Deer, Aberdeen however no names that you suggest are located in my tree for Cheney via this country.

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I have Penny in New Deer  and in Aberdeenshire

Answer 2

Hi From Finland!

John FitzRobert is my 22nd great Grandfather.

I would Love to join.

Greetings Tiina Allen

Comments

I will send you a private message.

Answer 3

I am interested in the Magna Carta Project but don't know that I am qualified, certainly not on your specifications.  I wish that I were, though.  I have done plenty of ancestry work, and have been a member of Wikitree for a while.  More to the point, based on the listed signers of the tree and 'relationship finder' I am a direct descendent of every single signer of the Magna Carta.  I am also a descendent of John Plantagenet.,  In that regard, I consider this project closely tied to my history.

Linda Ross Boddy

Comments

Hi Linda, I will send you a private message.

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I am not sure what to answer but I am interested in joining the Magna Carta Project and it says I need to answer this question in order to do so.

To date, I have not been as active on wikitree  but I have been very active for 12 + years on Ancestry and misc others. My children, through my husband's family, are descendants of at least one signer of the Magna Carta and most likely descendants of multiples, considering the rest of their European heritage. We have their great grandmother's "Society of Magna Carta Dames" certificate hanging in our house.

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Hi Cathy. i will send you a private message.

Answer 4

Hello, I and continuing to read theinto material. But, I thought I would like to add a comment here. The WikiTree widget says that a list of 15+ Magna Carta Barons are my ancestors rther than just connected.

I wiould like to work on these paths in addition to the more important work of the Proiject. Please consider me.

Comments

Thanks for your interest. I will send you a private message.

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I appreciate!

Answer 5

Hello! I would like to join the Magna Carta Project as a volunteer. I'm going to be tackling the pending [[Charles Barnes|Barnes-3571]] trails that need a lot of work. I have been a Wikipedian for 14 years now and I am very familiar with proper sourcing as well as formatting. I am also a [[Sarah (Woodward) Henchman|Woodward-1931]]  descendant who is a fully badged Magna Carta profile here.

Comments

Hi Darrell. Thank you for your interest in the Project. I am making you a member and will send you a private message.

Answer 6

Today a cousin posted this on my profile comments.

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Relationship&action=calculate&person1_name=Gwyn-202&person2_name=Baty-260

I just went up the line and have found solid links from and to each generation and the next.  Not all are documented in both directions (up and down) but there are solid connections from each generation to the next.  Looking through the sources there is enough to make a compelling case - at least in my mind.  I've seen many trails from my line, oft written by overly-optimistic cousins but this line seems to have enough merit to compel me to want to spend some time on it.

Comments

Thank you, SJ, for posting this. It looks promising.

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I adopted Lydia for the project and added a link to her trails to 3 surety barons, one of which is documented by Richardson. See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Humphrey-2315#Magna_Carta_Trails

Answer 7

I am 23rd great granddaughter (Uncertain) of  Robert de Vere (aft.1164-bef.1221), and others as well.

Answer 8

Hi,  I just found 16 relationships to the Magna Carta Surety Barons.  Robert de Ros, High de Bigot, Henry de Bohun, Henry D'Aubigny, Gilbert de Clare, John de Lacy, Saher de Quincy, Robert de Vere, John Fitz Robert, Roger Bigot, Robert Fitz Walter, Richard De Clare, William de Mowbray, William de Huntington, William Malet and Geoffrey de Say.  The first 15 relationships are 22nd, 23rd and 24th great grand daughters via my paternal side via the Daniel Jewett line.  The 16th (Geoffrey de Say) is a 26th gg daughter relationship, and is connected to my maternal side via Biggs-Rudisill-Kyle-Peck line. Cool to find a connection on both fathers (New England) and mother's (Virginia) sides!   -Jennifer Smith

Answer 9

I am interested in seeing clear written Bio of ancestors that are documented by more than saying it came from a tree in ancestry. You have no idea if they even have any facts on their tree. I am new to Wikipedia but old to lineage societies. I am a member of Magna Carta through James Cudworth - his lineage seems to be a source of confusion. I hope I can help set the facts.  James is a descendant of most of the signers. Debbie

Comments

Hi Debbie. Thanks. I am sending you a private message. What I should stress her is that all of us who work seriously on people born before 1700 share your concern about ill-sourced profiles. WikiTree guidance stresses that Ancestry trees and the like are not acceptable sources for them.

Answer 10

I would love to join Magna Carta Project, I appear to be 11th great granddaughter of Walter Aston Gent.

Comments

Thanks for posting, Jacqueline. I will send you a private message.

Answer 11

Hi there, finally getting time to seriously document  my ancestry. It appears that I have a connection to 5 Barons at the signing of the Magna Carta through the de Gouge line. All on Ancestry.com and therefore a lot of work adding sources and citations to comply with Wikitree  criteria. In the meantime I continue to lurk and garner whatever information I can from this group. Keep up the good work!

Answer 12

Sir John de Lacy (1192-1240) is my 23rd great-grandfather.

Answer 13

After research and DNA testing I have found that John I "Lackland" King of England is my 22nd G Grandfather. I am also a directly related to several of the Knights and Barons who signed the Magna Carta. These connections are on my mothers side. I live in SW England, and have been to see the best preserved of only four surviving copies of the 1215 Magna Carta, which is held at Salisbury Cathedral. This project ties in to my family history, and I would love to be a part of it.

Answer 14

Hello. I would like to join the Magna Carta Project. I have twelve direct Surety Baron ancestors and would like to take part in this project.

Thank you

Comments

Thanks for your interest. I will send you a private message.

Answer 15

Hi, I have several ties to the signers of the Magna Carta...  and I am interested in knowing more about it.

Comments

I will send you a private message.

Answer 16

Hey, kindly add me to the project & send me a badge, because I'm related to 14 of the MC barons directly & all 25 distantly & George Washington is my 12th cousin (so that says something about how the Barons were selected, perhaps?)

Interestingly enough, I'm related to king John as well.

Comments

Thanks for your interest. I will send you a private message.

Answer 17

I am a 9th-great-grandchild to Anne (Lovelace) Gorsuch, a Magna Carta Gateway Ancestor whose roots go back to quite a few Surety Barons and some of the 16 Illustrious Men.  I would like someone to contact me regarding the Magna Carta Project.

Comments

I will send you a private message

Answer 18

Hi,

I would like to join the Magna Carta project. I am a direct descendent of William Marshal & several other surety Barons. I am an inactive member of BOMC and joined thru gateway ancestor Humphrey Warren. I have a pretty good library including Richardson's Books. If someone could point me to examples of the preferred code for citing sources, I would appreciate it.

Best wishes,

Sherri

Comments

Thanks for your interest. I will send you a private message.

Answer 19

I AM INTRESTED IN JOINING THE MAGNA CARTA PROJECT.  RELATIONSHIPS WITH: ROBERT de VERE (MY BROTHERS NAME IS ROBERT DeVere DAWDY), WILLIAM de MOWBRAY, AND JOHN de LACY.

Would like to know where the de Vere name came into the family.  I can only find it in my grandfather, father, and brother

Comments

Thanks for your interest. I will send you a private message.

Answer 20

I would love to participate in the Magna Carta Project.  I am pre-1500 certified and have done extensive work on the Declaration of Arbroath project.  I am also a documented descendant of gateway ancestor Gov Thomas Green and would be very interested in pursuing this lineage (among others), if deemed qualified for this project.

Thanks for your consideration,

Pamela Lohbeck-1

Comments

Thanks, Pamela, for your interest. I have made you a Project member and will send you a private message.

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Thank you, Michael.  Looking forward to being part of this team.