So, on the 8th of March 1619 (404 years ago), my tenth great grandfather was born. Thomas Lawrence was just another entry in my long line of ancestors, or was he? Grandfather Lawrence has a special location in genealogy history / records. He is an approved (aka proven) gateway ancestor to the Emperor, Charles the Great (Charlemagne) of the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne was born in 747 and died in 814. This is the farthest back my lineage goes on any line. My tracing goes through his son, Pipin I, Richard II, Robert of Normandy (the father of William the Conqueror), down through Thomas’s line to Isaac Lawrence’s daughter, Rachel, who married John Jenks my 6th great grandfather. The line continues through my great- great-great grandmother, Esther Jenks, to my great grandmother Effie Clarissa Lee. My mother used to claim that her grandmother used to be very proud of the Lee name and helped both my mother and aunt in filling out genealogy projects for school in the 1930s. She actually created a link to the Lees of Virginia. It was those trees that I found in my grandparents’ attic at age 12 that got me hooked on genealogy. It took me years to find the actual link to the Lees of Connecticut, not Virginia. I wonder how Great Grandmother would have reacted to her line going back to Charlemagne?

That same Lee family line back through the Great Genandmother’s Grandmother Munn’s line led me to Mayflower passengers Edward and Samuel Fuller. She never knew.