I pulled this old article by James Palmer out of my bookmarks last night. I’ve found my interests wandering lately from the Middle Ages to the American West. Don’t know why that is. If I had wanted to do western history, my parents were total geeks. I was mysteriously attracted more to medieval stuff, and now I’ve been doing it for 50 years or more. So, I’m asking myself...
A few days ago I wrote about the Necessity of Chivalry. That was C.S. Lewis talking about the ideal of turning brutal warriors into men who care about the world and people in it. That was medieval chivalry. Now I’m thinking about killing off chivalry. Modern chivalry. The modern stuff is different from the medieval stuff. Paul Sturtevant has an article that highlights the differences...
Shut in because of the COVID-19 virus for a couple of weeks now. I’m catching up on some old genealogy chores, but I’m ready for some variety. Maybe this is the time to work through some of the online learning courses I’ve bookmarked. I’ve spent I don’t know how many hours with YouTube videos. Mostly history and politics but also a big chunk of web development...
So often someone sends me a solution to a genealogical knot, along with the expectation I will see it as the final answer. That’s surprisingly common with reconstructions of early medieval dynasties but it also happens with routine research into ordinary people. My expectation is quite different. A good test of the evidence is whether, given what we know, could it reasonably have been any...
I’m in love with Raphael Falco’s Cultural Genealogy. It’s the book I wanted to write but never did. Genealogists who work on ancient and early medieval genealogy often think it’s all pretty simple. There are chronicles that show the generations. Enter those in your software and you’re done. You have descents from Adam, King David, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar...