As I've said, one thing I have noticed is a lot of interest in the Mayfair family tree. I can certainly understand why. With what we now know about what our DNA can tell us about who our relatives, our ancestors were and are, it's certain to have raised all kinds of new questions about how our DNA tells us these things. Certainly, not everyone has gotten a pleasant shock from DNA test results. We've learned things about our genetics that has caused us to approach our family trees in new ways, forced us to ask difficult questions.
In the process, we've learned new terms, like "endogamy" and "pedigree collapse". We've learned to understand our ancestors in the context of the time periods they lived in, through history. We have seen celebrities on TV shows learning things about their ancestors both known and unknown, both fascinating and troubling. We have even learned, to our utter shock, that many of us have not one, not two, but many ancestors and relatives who were more than mere footnotes in the pages of history, even famous.
How is that possible?!
Endogamous marriages, particularly if they happen multiple times across several generations, is what largely explains that one.
What was once extraordinary, mindboggling, utterly confusing, is becoming normal. But what can it tell us about the Mayfair family tree?
If you've checked back on the main website in the past day or so, you might have noticed I've added more regarding the Mayfair Family tree. The three new pages on Rowan and Mona Mayfair and Michael Curry can also be accessed from the list of the Mayfair men on the Mayfair Family Tree page.
There is a link for each that will take you directly to that person's table on each of the three pages. For example, to see how Daniel McIntyre and Rowan Mayfair are most closely related, you'd click on Relation to Rowan Mayfair under Daniel McIntyre in the list of the Mayfair men.
The paternity of the Mayfair Witches is something that is controversial, even to the Witches themselves. Which is why there was some uncertainty as to who had fathered Antha Mayfair: Lionel Mayfair (Stella's brother and Antha's uncle) or Cortland Mayfair, who was also Barbara Ann Mayfair's father. However, it was Cortland who fathered Antha Mayfair.
As you can imagine, this makes for a very interesting and twisted family tree either way you look at it.
On Mona's page, I've added Lestan Mayfair, who was the brother of Marie Claudette and the patriarch, I guess you'd call it, of the Fontevrault Mayfairs. Those are the Mayfairs who branched off the main line to establish their own plantation, Fontevrault, after Augustin Mayfair lost a duel with Julien Mayfair.
To indicate Lestan Mayfair is the "patriarch" of this branch of Mayfairs, and just for funsies, I put a little bitty version of this under his name:
Belle Grove Plantation was the plantation shown in The Witches' Companion as an example of what Fontevrault might have looked like. You can see a bit more at the bottom of the page Amelia Street--The Fontevrault Outpost
The "Mayfair 500", Michael Curry's term for how many Mayfair cousins there are, is now part of the name of a new page, Mayfair 500--How Cousins Are Made
This page, with some graphics I made for a video, is a basic overview of...well, how cousins are made. Hopefully, I've put it together in a way that makes sense!
All of these pages can be found under the subcategory The Mayfair Witches, where the Mayfair Family Tree page is found.