An Ancestor Story

Somewhere around 700 years ago....near the 1360 era, I had this ancestor named Thomas.  We will call him 'Tom' for short.

Tom grew up on the eastern side of England, in a small farming community of Levenham, UK (about an hour's drive north of London).  To be honest, in today's environment....there's just not much there.  In the 1200 to 1400 era?  Well....oddly enough, it was regarded as one of the dozen-odd spots on the whole isle with wealth.  Several families with status....lived in the local area.  Tom?  He was a 'clan-member' of one of these families.

At some point, around age twenty to thirty (no one knows the precise story)....Tom ends up on a trip that takes him to the northeastern end of Turkey (on the Black Sea....NOT the Med).  This is 200 years after the crusades and has nothing to do with the crusades.  The period?  This is really the Marco Polo-era, when trade routes are being developed and people are trading off into China, and routes end up going through Persia, Armenia, and Georgia....onto Turkey, the Black Sea, and the Med.

My humble guess is that Tom ended up on one of these sea adventures, and a trading expedition of sorts. 

Along the north coast of Turkey, near the end....lies the port city of Trabzon.  Today?  It has roughly 750,000 residents.  In those days, it probably numbered at least 50,000.  It would have been a major port for trade activity coming out of the Silk Road.

At some point, Tom ends up with a Countess wife (Cycely of Alcel).  Tom?  He likely holds a title of 'Sir' at this point.  Most royalty in England is ending, and even getting the title of the 3rd Duke of Madison....really didn't mean much of anything. 

Who was the Countess Cycely of Alcel?  It is a real unknown.  It's an odd spelling.  If this were English or Irish...it'd be Cecily.  Alcel?  Non-existent today.  It might have been a hilltop, or a courtyard on the outskirts of Trabzon.  Perhaps it's not even around Trabzon but of another area in the distance. 

So you start to look around this region of northeastern Turkey, and its neighbors.  To the east, you have Georgia, and in the middle....the major trading city in the 1300's of Tbilisi.  Tbilisi is fairly well known in this era for prosperity, trade, and capital.  Interestingly enough, it's also known for a fairly large population of Ashkenazi Jews.   Around a hundred years prior to Tom's adventure....the Mongols arrive in the Georgia region, and a fair number of folks evacuated....left....relocated, with some of the wealthy clans ending up in Turkey. 

My suspicion, to this odd feature in this recent DNA test I took....I have .5-percent of Ashkenazi Jewish DNA....is that the Countess here (Cycely of Alcel) is more or less a descent of the Ashkenazi Jews of Tbilisi, and the family had become traders in the Trabzon port region.

A dowry of sorts is offered up to guys of this era, and I'm guessing that Tom was standing at the right place and right time....and ended up with a Countess by this circumstance.  And thus explains to some degree the .5-percent of Ashkenazi Jewish DNA that I have.

What happens after this event?  Tom and Cycely return to England.  Tom passes away at age 49 (we never know the circumstance to this).  Cycely lives on for another forty-odd years. 

Oddly enough, this is the end of any royalty or status claims to the family tree.  No one after this point ever mentions Lord, Duke, Sir, or Countess.