Inherited traits...

While I'll still claim the Boyds as my clan, as my great-great grandmother was a Boyd, I can trace my line back to the Bruce as well, through someone who married one of the Boyds a couple centuries later. (Then again, I assume when you link into peerage, you will always find significant amounts of overlap, between marriages arranged for political reasons or just matches between people of "suitable" class. This might explain some of the less stable mental traits of royalty. :) )

However, that brings up some interesting thoughts about the possibility of inherited traits. I trace back to 1) Charlemagne (I know, me and everyone else with European blood! :)) 2) the Scottish revolutionaries mentioned previously, 3) William of Orange (the Dutch revolutionary, not the English king), 4) Pierre You, a French Voyageur who was one of only 5 people who survived the expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi with LaSalle, 5) John and Pricilla Alden... Gee, I wonder where my tendency to look for the "new and unique" comes from! :) They definitely have a pioneering and revolutionary spirit in common.

Note too how often that revolutionary streak was tied up in religious beliefs as well. Does that explain the activism I've done in the past for religious freedom? Or does that just tell us that religion is a great excuse to take power from someone else? (Whoops, pardon me, my cynicism is showing. :)

Of course, my link to William of Orange comes through Anna of Saxony, who was so crazy she literally frothed at the mouth and had to be put in restraints. So maybe I know where some DIFFERENT traits of mine come from as well! :)

P.S. Now that's fun. I didn't realize that John Alden was on the jury for a witch trial, one of only two held in Plymouth. What's even better is that in both cases the accuser was found guilty of slander/libel and the alleged witch was freed! Now that's the kind of ending I like to that sort of story. :)