Going Back on Don Baker's Helmick Line in Europe
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Going Back on Don Baker’s Helmick Line in Europe By Burks Oakley II 18 June 2020 I recently wrote about my cousin Don Baker’s DNA matches with descendants of ancestors of his second-great grandfather, John McCann (1830-1897). See: http://www.burksoakley.com/genealogy/DEB-JohnMcCann_18Jun20.pdf In looking at Don’s ancestors on this line, I got to a branch of the family that had immigrated to America from the Netherlands. The immigrant was Don’s seventh- great grandfather Roelof Cornelissen Van Houten: Roelof’s son was Don’s sixth-great grandfather Helmigh Roelofse Van Houten: And Helmick’s son was Don’s fifth-great grandfather Jacob Helmick: It appears that Jacob Helmick Americanized his father’s name of Helmigh to Helmick, and then took it as his surname. Here is a branch of Don’s family tree showing his line back to Jacob Helmick: In this narrative, I would like to see what I can find about the Helmick/van Houten ancestors in the Netherlands. How far back can I trace this line in Europe? I decided to see if I could use the Geni.com website in this process. Geni.com has what could be called the “World Family Tree”. Unlike Ancestry.com, where everyone has their own complete family tree, Geni.com is having its users collaboratively build just a single family tree. On Ancestry.com, there can be one thousand or more duplicate entries for the same person – and they often have conflicting information. On Geni.com, there should only be one entry on the entire website for a given person. Individual users on Geni.com can add their ancestral line until it connects with a person already in the World Family Tree. And then their line immediately becomes part of this enormous family tree. As an example of this, when I looked at the entry for Alexander MacLean (Don’s sixth-great grandfather), I learned that he is my sixth-cousin ten-times removed – see my narrative at: http://www.burksoakley.com/genealogy/DEB-ScottishAncestors_14Jun20.pdf I first looked to see if there was an existing entry for Jacob Helmick on Geni.com, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was! https://www.geni.com/people/Jacob-van-Houten/6000000000121493025 Here he is listed with his Dutch name of Jacob Helmighse van Houten. But with the birth and death dates exactly the same as in Don’s tree (see below), plus his father, wife and daughter being the same, this is definitely is Don’s fifth-great grandfather. When I was looking at the entry for Jacob Helmighse van Houten on Geni.com, I was amazed to see that I am related to him: Oh my! Jacob is my sixteenth-cousin five-times removed. Granted, this is a very distant relationship, but since Don and I are both related to Jacob, that is a second way in which we are related. I mentioned our other relationship in an earlier narrative about Don’s Scottish ancestors: http://www.burksoakley.com/genealogy/DEB-ScottishAncestors_14Jun20.pdf Here are the details of my relationship with Jacob Helmick (Jacob Helmighse van Houten): On the fifth line of this chart, it shows that my line goes through Edward III, King of England, and his father Edward II, King of England. Amazing! The connection to Jacob’s line goes through the sister of Edward II (Margaret of England), meaning our common ancestor was King Edward I (the father of King Edward II). Here is the entry for King Edward I on Geni.com: And here is my line back to King Edward I: King Edward I was my twentieth-great grandfather! My line to King Edward I goes through my fourth-great grandmother Sarah Burr (in the upper-right corner of the above image). Sarah was a first-cousin of Aaron Burr, the third Vice President of the United States. But I digress….. Going back to Jacob Helmick, here is part of his paternal pedigree on Geni.com: I followed a couple of these lines back for a number of generations. One of these lines took me to Gerhard I, Count of Wassenberg: Gerhard I was Jacob Helmick’s twenty-third-great grandfather: By my calculation, Gerhard I was Don’s twenty-eighth-great grandfather. Wassenberg is a town in the district Heinsberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated near the border with the Netherlands, on the river Rur, approx. 6 km north-east of Heinsberg and 15 km south-east of Roermond. Wassenberg, as shown on a Google Map When I was looking at Gerhard I on Geni.com, I saw that he and I are related! Oh my! He was my twenty-eighth-great grandfather. Here is my line back to Gerhard I: I have to admit, this is a pretty distinguished ancestral line. It includes a Baron, several Earls, the Sheriff of Surrey, several Countesses, a Lord, and several Counts. Notably, the line runs through Sir Hugh Bigod (1182-1225), 3rd Earl of Norfolk. Hugh Bigod was a member of the powerful early Norman Bigod family and in 1215, he was one of the twenty-five sureties of the Magna Carta of King John. Let me now return to Jacob Helmick’s ancestors. I followed another of his ancestral lines on Geni.com, and it took me to Louis IV, King of West Francia: Here is Jacob Helmick’s line back to Louis IV, King of West Francia: King Louis IV was Jacob Helmick’s twenty-fourth-great grandfather, making him Don’s twenty-ninth-great grandfather. Wow! Don is descended from the King of West Francia!! More about King Louis IV on Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IV_of_France Of course, when I was looking at the entry on Geni.com for King Louis IV, I learned that I am related to him: King Louis IV is my twenty-seventh-great grandfather. Here is my direct line back to King Louis IV: One thing that I haven’t mentioned previously about Geni.com is that in addition to “blood” relationships, it also shows “in-law” relationships. So in the image at the top of this page, it shows that “Louis IV, king of West Francia, is your 29th great grandmother’s 2nd husband”. Here is a chart showing this relationship: Gerberga of Saxony was the daughter of Henry I “The Fowler”, King of Germany. This means that Henry I (876-936) was my twenty-eighth-great grandfather. More about him on Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Fowler Of course, Jacob Helmick also was descended from Gerberga of Saxony. Gerberga was Jacob’s twenty-fourth-great grandmother: This means that Henry I “The Fowler”, King of Germany, was Jacob Helmick’s twenty-fifth-great grandfather. And therefore King Henry I was Don’s thirtieth- great grandfather. At this point, I realized I could spend days looking at various ancestors of Jacob Helmick. I will note, however, that I am related to all of Jacob’s ancestors mentioned so far. I wonder if it works the other way. Early in this narrative, I mentioned that King Edward I of England was my twentieth-great grandfather. Was Jacob Helmick also descended from King Edward I? Oh my! The answer to my question is YES!! King Edward I was Jacob Helmick’s fifteenth-great grandfather. Making him Don’s twentieth-great grandfather. The pedigree of English kings is very well known. Here is a chart showing four generations of King Edward I’s ancestors: That means that Jacob Helmick (and by extension, Don) is descended from everyone in this chart. Keep in mind the numbers in the green boxes at the right, which show the number of ancestors on the next screen for each of these lines. I first looked at Alfonso II, King of Aragón: Alfonso II el Casto, King of Aragón, was Jacob Helmick’s nineteenth-great grandfather: Alfonso II was Don’s twenty-fourth-great grandfather. In case you are wondering, Aragón is a region in northeast Spain. More about Alfonso II on Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_II_of_Aragon Alfonso II (1157-1196) was the King of Aragon from 1164 until his death. He was the first King of Aragon who was also Count of Barcelona. He was also Count of Provence from 1166 until 1173. His reign has been characterized by nationalistic and nostalgic Catalan historians, as “the Pyrenean unity”: a great scheme to unite various lands on both sides of the Pyrenees under the rule of the House of Barcelona. I also followed the top line in the pedigree for King Edward I. That took me to Fulk V, King of Jerusalem: Jacob Helmick is descended from Fulk V: Fulk V was Jacob Helmick’s twentieth-great grandfather. More about Fulk V on Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulk,_King_of_Jerusalem Fulk V was King of Jerusalem from 1131 to his death in 1143. During his reign, the Kingdom of Jerusalem reached its largest territorial extent. He died in Acre (in present-day Israel). He was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. If you don’t know about the Crusades and the King of Jerusalem, you should read the Wikipedia article in its entirety. Then I decided to find the most famous European ruler, Charlemagne. Jacob has to be descended from him, right? Scroll down…. Keep scrolling…… The suspense is killing me….. Of course Jacob was descended from Charlemagne!!! Charlemagne was Jacob’s twenty-eighth-great grandfather, making him Don’s thirty-third great grandfather.