The newly started Magna Carta project has a list of Colonial immigrants who are ‘Gateway Ancestors’ to the Magna Carta barons. Over 250 Colonial ancestors have been documented as descendants of Charlemagne (743-814), and most of those go right through the surety barons of Magna Carta.
Is one of your ancestors on our list? You can find out on Gateway Ancestors.
An estimated three million Americans are descended from the barons who forced King John to sign Magna Carta in 1215. Known as the ‘surety barons’, they risked their wealth, their families and castles, and their lives, for insisting that King John obey the law. The chances are good that you are a descendant.
As co-leader John Schmeeckle said:
Right now we're using "gateway ancestor" to mean 200+ immigrant ancestors (from England to America) in the 17th century who already have proven and published ancestries going back to Magna Carta surety barons. But... there were doubtless many later immigrants from England who have Magna Carta ancestries, and of course there are many families with Magna Carta ancestry who stayed in England! So I imagine that, as time goes by, our definition of "gateway ancestor" will slowly expand along with the number of gateway ancestors
In June of 2015, England is celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, and we are all invited. In fact, the party has already started.
Here at WikiTree, we are celebrating by improving the profiles of the surety barons, of the illustrious men listed in the preamble of Magna Carta, and of the Gateway Ancestors.
Are you interested in Magna Carta or the Colonial and/or Medieval eras, and have some experience with those time frames? People will be looking for their Magna Carta ancestors at WikiTree due to the 800th anniversary. Would you like to help us make the profiles ready for visitors?
Our goals are here on our project page
To join us, add your name to the list of project members on the project page, with a comment on your specific interest, add magna_carta to the tags you follow in G2G, and send myself or John your email address so we can send you an invitation to participate in the Google+ group that WikiTree set up for our project to facilitate communications.
We look forward to meeting you,
Co-Leaders John Schmeeckle and April Dauenhauer
