A knight in the family

[klwilliams]

A real knight, that is. My mother has been out visiting my aunt and her new husband, who is a very distant relative of ours. My aunt and new uncle met because they were both doing genealogical research on our family. My mother found out from them that my great-grandmother's branch of the family is descended from a knight from the Alsace-Lorraine. When he was knighted he changed the family name to Von Zorn ("from the Zorn river", which is a river that runs into the Rhine in Alsace). He and his immediate descendants owned some castles, too, though only one is still standing. My branch of the family came over to South Carolina in 1735, and at some point started calling themselves just Zorn. Pretty cool.

Comments

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Way cool.

[aberwyn.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Oh, that is very cool.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

Definitely cool.

Have you thought of travelling to Applesauce-Lorraine (sorry, influence of old Bullwinkle cartoons, you know) to check out the one castle that remains?

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I suggested it to my mother, in fact. I'd love to do it.

[acanthusleaf.livejournal.com]

An excellent discovery!

A Zorn Then and Now

[(Anonymous)]

KLW:
This is the sister that your mother just visited. I receive a daily report of anything ZORN that comes over the 'net or the news. Sometimes there is some blurb that is genealogy worthy. Imagine my surprise tonight when it contained your message about the Zorns. If you go to see the castle without taking me, I will haunt you for eternity! Love, Claudia

[darcyjavanne.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Neat. I've done family history and almost without exception my ancestors were coal miners while there was coal mining to be done and before that 'labourers'. No matter how far back I go I doubt that I'll find any knights, though there may be an occasional viking.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

The other side of that same branch of my family was transported to Georgia as criminals, so there you go.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

The most interesting (very definitely in the Chinese sense) we can manage is BB's g-g-grandfather and his two eldest sons (aged 40, 19 and 17 respectively) were killed in the Oaks Colliery Explosion of 1866, a disaster which is still rated 10th biggest mining disaster in the world. I have a g-g-uncle who was buried under a colliery roof-fall in Castleford (just a small one) in 1898. My g-g-grandfather was working next to him at the time and wasn't injured. I have the newspaper report of the enquiry at which my g-g-g'father testified.