The Garretts -- Before America

The Garretts — Before America

by John E. Garrett

Last year, I published my work entitled, "1000 Years of Garrett Family History". The emphasis in that effort was the genealogy of the Garretts since their immigration to America in the mid-seventeenth century. This work examines how the Garretts evolved during the generations that they spent in England, Wales and Ireland from the time the first ancestor landed in England until the first Garrett came to America.

My research involved the use of:

A commercial genealogy website named Ancestry.com.
Extensive use of the Google search engine on the Internet

The first 100 years, starting in the eleventh century, was the most interesting. That was where I found a remarkable relationship between my ancestors and King Edward the Confessor, King William the Conqueror and King Henry I. My first ancestor to land in England, Otho Geraldini, grew-up with Edward before he became King; his son Walter FitzOtho was in William, the Bastard's army; and his son Gerald grew-up with Prince Henry (King William"s son) who became King Henry I. Their close relationship is demonstrated by the vast amount of land, castles and titles bestowed upon them.

In retrospect, I am impressed at how important the genes of the spouses are to the family's genealogy. The best example of this is when my ancestor, Gerald of Windsor married Nesta Rhys, a Welsh Princess. There offspring’s were all outstanding. The next "high" came when the Garrett's became merchants in the 16th century, opened trade with Russia, became Lord Mayor of London and honorary knighthood.

To make this work more readable, I have placed several interesting "asides" in the Appendix. For example, the de Clares, of Richard "Strongbow" de Clare fame married into the Garretts. I found extensive genealogy on the ancestry of Richard "Strongbow" de Clare going back before 100 AD. So, I put his data into two appendices. One for the French ancestors and another for the Viking ancestors.

To comment on or ask questions about my work on the Garrett family, please send email to .

The Garretts — Before America, Adobe Acrobat PDF format