From: "Vickie (Elam) White" <102657.1616@COMPUSERVE.COM> 
Subject: Anjou was nothing compared to this guy! <G> 
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997 20:09:53 EST

This was sent to me by a friend on CompuServe. And we thought Gustave Anjou was
bad! <G>

Vickie (Elam) White
102657.1616@compuserve.com

*******************************************
Many of you may be familiar with Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966), one of the
most notable genealogists of New England...The following is found in the first
volume of the recent collection of his own ancestral efforts __Massachusetts and
Maine Families__, pp. 535-537. I hope that this surpasses the worst that you've
found in your own research:

"It has been the fate of many English and American families to have their
pedigrees drawn up and their genealogies written by the ignorant, the
credulous, or the fraudulent. While it is commonly and humorously stated that
all genealogists are slightly mad, the Fernald family had the unique and
dubious distinction of having a historian who was undeniably insane. In 1909
Charles Augustus Fernald, M.D., at what must have been considerable expense,
published a book entitled 'Universal International Genealogy and of the Ancient
Fernald Families'. It is impossible to give in a short space an adequate idea
of this extraordinary production. It must be seen, its wildly incoherent
English read and its fantastic and often hilariously funny claims sampled
before its very existence can be believed.

"The theme of the book, garnished with many digressions, is the descent in one
hundred and fifty-four generations, of Dr. Renald Fernald from Sana who was the
daughter of Abel and Zana, Zana being the daughter of Cain and Kanafatafaa,
twin children of Adam and Eve, who were also, of course, the parents of Abel.
Sana married Seth who was born on Monday, April 3, 130 and died on Friday,
November 11, 1042. From generation to generation of Biblical and Egyptian
characters, their birth and death dates being given with particularity as in
the case of Seth, and in most cases their portraits thoughtfully provided, the
line unfolds. In the 40th generation, with one Farna, comes the first faint
shadow of the name Fernald, while in the 49th, when Farnel appears, its
ultimate form is definitely forecast. Alexander the Great, the 83rd in
descent, is a high spot, and with the 94th generation we reach the noble Roman
name of Furnius. Marcus Agrippa Lucius Furnius is an ancestor of whom any
American may be peculiarly proud, for the took time off from his pressing
senatorial duties to cross the Atlantic, cut an inscription in Dighton Rock at
Taunton in Massachusetts and, for good measure, build the round tower at
Newport [Rhode Island]. Attila the Hun makes a surprise appearance in
generation 116, but even more surprisingly we escape Charlemagne, having to be
content with his brother Childebert. Of Childebert's son 'Robert le Fort=the
Strong' we are told, as an interesting sidelight, that he was 'ancestor of the
Pike family in the U.S. of America.' After Childebert follows a long line of
French Kings until we reach Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany. On this eminent
couple a bad fairy or a wicked nursemaid played a dastardly trick, snatching
from the royal cradle their youngest son, and, after substituting a lad of
humble birth, spiriting him away for purposes which seem to have had something
to do with the Protestant Reformation.

"Royal genius will out, however, and the little prince, all unknowing, grew up
to be the great court physician, Dr. Jean Fernel. Fernel -- he was a real
person, by the way, born at Clermont in 1497 -- married Magdalen Luillier, and
with her our genealogist gives us our first connection with the Washingtons,
for he says that her great-grandfather, Jean Luillier, married Anne Washington.
Of Dr. Fernel's vast estate the Catholic church seized no less than $21,000,000
and the Popes have successfully resisted all efforts of the Fernalds and
Washingtons to get it back. Jean is the 150th generation in the pedigree, the
151st being his son Francis Junius Fernel who married Maria Comnenus,
presumably a descendant of the Byzantine emperors although the author neglects
to say so. Perhaps you should be warned to relax at this point for startling
events impend. To Francis and Maria Fernel were born four children whose
marriages were spectacular in the extreme. Their daughter Maria married Capt.
John Smith, the famous voyager and raconteur. Their son Peter became the
father of Peter Fanuel, the Boston merchant for whom the great town market was
named. A second son, Dr. Jean Furnius Fernel, our ancestor in the 152nd
generation, married Annietta de Coligny, daughter of Gaspard de Coligny,
Admiral of France and firm Huguenot, who, like Marcus Agrippa Lucius Furnius,
made an otherwise unrecorded voyage to America. It is, however, for the second
daughter, Anne Fernel, that the most astounding distinction is reserved. Having
been adopted by 'Mr. Hathaway' in England, this child eventually married one
Samuel Washington who wrote rather successful plays under the pen-name William
Shakespeare!

"Dr. Jean Furnius Fernel and his Coligny wife happened to be in Germany when
their son William Fernald was born on May 10, 1575, in the castle of
Heidelberg, but they took him to the church of the Hold Ghost in Baden to be
baptized. This boy, who grew up to be Capt. Sir William Fernald, married
Elizabeth Armand, thereby strengthening the Washington connection, for she was
the daughter of Commander Girard and Elizabeth (Washington) Armand, and Queen
Elizabeth was so fond of her that she gave her a china teapot (illustrated) as
a wedding present. From a Washington pedigree, of obvious interestat this
point, we learn that one of George Washington's ancestors, Adam Washington,
eight generations behind him, married 'Th. Roosevelt,' 'Th.' presumably
standing for Theodora, who can only be one of the Oyster Bay [home of President
Theodore Roosevelt] preferred stock.

"Finally we come to Dr. Renald Fernald, the 154th generation, son of Capt. Sir
William. He is married to Joanna Warburton, 'descendant fo Sir John Warburton
(1575) and Mary,' and after his resignation from the Royal Navy they came to
New England.

"The closing words in this genealogical curiosity are worth quoting as
indicative of the disordered mind which produced it -- 'Any errata within this
book are the works of the quadruple Rum, Social Evil and Malpractice Vile Ring
in their unholy works to destroy the nations, finally themselves.'"