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One of our ancestral lines traces back to the 11th century to the time of William the Conqueror, William I of England, to a man named Dominus Other, (or perhaps Dominus Otha) who was sent by William to England in 1056, undoubtedly in anticipation of William assuming the crown of England, as he had been promised. There appear to be ancestral links even further back from Dominus to Cosimo GHERARDINI, the Grand Duke of Florence in 870, but this section of the lineage is not documented as positively as the portion leading back to William I. There is one daughter/father relationship in the lineage that lacks documentation so far, although it obviously exists. The parents of Robert CARTER, the first of our Carters to emigrate from Ireland to Canada, were William CARTER and Rebecca JULIAN who were born about 1765 and were married about 1785. They lived in Queen’s County (now County Laois) in or near the county towns of Mountrath and Maryborough (now Port Laoise) in Ireland. Several families of JULIANS were prominent in the area at the time of the birth of Rebecca JULIAN, and were centered on Morett Castle and elsewhere near Mountrath and Maryborough. They appear in parish and land records, but almost all the entries were of men. It was not uncommon at that time for women to be considered of secondary importance, and neglected in the records. As a result, no documentation has been found so far about Rebecca JULIAN: a complete absence of her birth, marriage, and death. Tantalizingly, we know from family notes and from the repeated use of the names ‘Rebecca’ and ‘Julian’ in the names of succeeding generations about the existence of Rebecca JULIAN, but we have no documented proof of her existence nor of which JULIAN family she was a member. The most likely candidate to be her father is William JULIAN (1730-1807), and she was probably born in Morett Castle. Her grandfather would be Colonel Nathaniel JULIAN, the husband of Castiliana FITZGERALD (born about 1700), the youngest daughter of Stephen FITZGERALD. The only other possibility to be her father is Christopher JULIAN (1724-1808) but again her grandparents would still be Colonel Nathaniel JULIAN and Castiliana Fitzgerald. The search for ancestors now takes on a new dimension. By identifying Castiliana as an ancestor, we've struck gold! The FITZGERALDS were one of the most prominent families in Irish history for several centuries. They virtually ruled Ireland deputized by successive British monarchs. Their ancestry is therefore well documented. With the aid of the Encyclopedia Britannia and a few supplementary sources, we have traced the ancestry of Castiliana FITZGERALD in great detail, leading us back through the centuries to people in the court of William the Conqueror as our ancestors. To see the entire lineage, go to Family Page, click on Carter Lineage or Carter Lineage (extended), and then click on Hugh Munro Carter. Because of computer limitations, this chart will take you back only as far as Baron of the Naas, Maurice Fitzgerald (1120-1176), who married Alice de Montgomery. To go further back, go to Carter Lineage or Carter Lineage (extended), and click on Rebecca Julian, and her chart will take you all the way to Dominus Otha, as well as early Welsh kings, Enjoy the ancestral trip back to the Middle Ages. From Rebecca CARTER, née JULIAN, through the FITZGERALD line back to 1066 and all that! |