I can trace my patrilineal ancestry back to 1296 to Archibald de Moravia of Scotland.
He was descended from the Morays, lords of Bothwel, who, by marriage of a daughter of Sir David Olifard, got considerable possessions in the county of Selkirk. He is mentioned in the Charterly of Newbottle, 1280, subscribed to the oath of fealty to Edward I, 1296; died in the reign of Robert Bruce.
More than likely, a brother or cousin would have been Andrew Moray who was William Wallace's (Braveheart) co-general in the uprising against Edward I. And, that would have likely made Archibald one of the Lords that murdered Braveheart.
The lineage passes on down through England, where a descendant of Archibald was Patrick, "The Outlaw" Murray, also my ancestor, who rebelled against James IV of Scotland, written up in "The Sang of the Outlaw Murray" by Sir Walter Scott.
My great grandfather emigrated to the US and married a cousin of the Queen Mother of England, making me 4th cousin, twice removed of Queen Elizabeth.
He was an Episcopalian minister in Baltimore.
My grandfather married an Eareckson of which I have the family tree tracing their lineage back to 1650 when they first came to America, making me a 13th generation American and therefore, by definition, a native American.
My father's brother, named after my great grandfather, was the Episcopalian bishop of the Gulf Coast and Alabama.
My father invented the sponge.
My mother's side goes back to Ireland where my great-great grandparents emigrated to Canada and then, their children to the US.
My mother's father was in the diplomatic corp as an engineer and spent time in Jordan designing engineering works for a very young King Hussein.
