RELEASE DATE: MARCH 22, 2015
KINSEARCHING
by
Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
Many genealogists are thrilled when they discover a family link to European royalty or nobility. When these connections are found, they are usually included in books about specific families, along with information pertaining to common folks. In his new work, THE ROYAL DESCENTS OF JUDITH IVYE, WIFE OF ANTHONY PRATER, Thomas Benjamin Hertzel does things a little differently--he traces only the royal and noble ancestral lines of one person.
As the title implies, Hertzel focuses on the royal lineage of Judith IVYE, born in 1550 and died on 6 February 1578 in Wiltshire, England, who married Anthony PRATER. She was the daughter of Thomas IVYE and his second wife, Elizabeth MALET, and granddaughter of Hugh MALET and Isabel MITCHELL, both of whom were of royal descent. Among her famous forebears who lived in Europe during medieval times are William the Conqueror, from whom Judith descends through several lines; Henry I, King of France; Lothair I, King of Italy; Henry the Fowler, King of the Germans, and Charles Martel. In all, Hertzel identifies 155 separate lines of descent, including several that tie some of Judith’s Prater/Prather descendants to other historical figures, but from whom Judith herself does not descend.
Since Judith’s grandson, Thomas Prater, had little chance of receiving a substantial inheritance, he immigrated to the New World in 1622. Settling in Elizabeth Cittie (now Newport News), Virginia, Thomas became the progenitor of most of Judith’s Prater/Prather descendants now residing in the United States. Most of his immediate descendants migrated through all parts of Virginia and into Maryland and the Carolinas. Later generations made their home in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and the Deep South. Colonial-era families who claim Thomas as an ancestor include ADAIR, BEAL/BEALL/BEALLE, BOWIE, BRASHEARS, DUCKETT, DUVALL, HYATT, MOORE, MULLIKIN, O’DELL, PHILLIPS, SWEARINGEN, TURNER, WILLIAMS, and YOUNG.
Hertzel arranges his material by generations, with each one in descending order and with every generation as a separate paragraph. The individual paragraphs provide the name of an ancestor and his or her spouse, names of the spouse’s parents (if known), and documentation of sources. Using this method of organization, he begins lines of descent with a well-known ancestor and follows the lineage by successive generations down to Judith.
Genealogists with Prater or Prather ancestry will want to read the fascinating account of their family tree in THE ROYAL DESCENTS OF JUDITH IVYE, WIFE OF ANTHONY PRATER. People trying to connect to royalty or nobility will also be interested in this new addition to the literature on the topic.
The 211-page publication has soft covers, a preface, an introduction, illustrations, family charts, an eight-page bibliography, and an index. To the book's price of $32.50, buyers should add the cost for postage and handling charges. For U. S. postal mail, the cost is $5.50 for one book and $2.50 for each additional copy; for FedEx ground service, the cost is $7.50 for one copy and $2.50 for each additional book. The volume (item order 8230) may be purchased by check, money order, MasterCard, or Visa from Clearfield Company, 3600 Clipper Mill Rd., Suite 260, Baltimore, Maryland 21211-1953. For phone orders, call toll free 1-800-296-6687; fax 1-410-752-8492; website www.genealogical.com.