Many years ago in 1961 my dad was going through his things and found an old handmade book on his geneology, (by his grandmother) he wasn't too interested in it and asked if I wanted it. I kept it, and glanced at it now and then thru the years. Around 6 years ago my daughter took a great interest in it, and found a direct link to John of Gaunt and Katherine, whom both of us had never heard of before. As she progressed backwards in time, from my grandparents on down, it led up to John/Katherine as my 18th great grandparents and their son John Beaufort and Margaret Holland as my 17th, and their daughter Joan who married James Stewart as my 16th gr.grndparents. Weird, interesting, but is it right? I'll never know, except all marriages, birthdates and names go right to them. Is there anyone out there with the same problem? I wish there was a way to take a dna test to find out the truth.

Hi ballylynn,
We have a number of members in the Katherine Swynford Society who, like yourself, can trace their ancestry back to Katherine and John. If you leave a message on the Society website www.katherineswynfordsociety.org.uk
and list your ancestors, perhaps one of our members can confirm your genealogical tree.

Thanks for the reply. Here are a list of my ancestors, I'm not sure how to start, so I'll begin with myself and dad and then skip to John of Gaunt. Each name below the other is a son or daughter. I left out birthdates/date of deaths, but have most of them.
Valerie lynn Hohler, father: Kenneth E. Hohler

John of Gaunt m Katherine Swynford, son:
John Beaufort m Margaret Holland, daughter:
Joan Beaufort m James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn, son:
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, mistress Margaret Murray, son:
James Stewart, 1st Laird of Traquir m Katherine Rutherford, son:
William Stewart 2nd Laird of Traquir m Catherine Hay, son:
James Stewart m Catherine Kerr, daughter:
Janet Stewart m John Veitch, Laird of Dawyck, son:
Malcolm Veitch m Katerina Veitch, son:
James Veitch the Sheriff m Mary Gakerlin of Wales, son:
Nathan Veitch (b.Maryland? d. 1706) m Ann Claggett, son:
James Veatch m Rachel Beall, son:
Daniel Veatch m Dorcas Deakins, son:
John Veatch m Sarah Hodges, son:
Jeremiah Veatch m Sally Jaques, daughter:
Sarah Jane Veatch m William Lee, daughter:
Mary Ann Lee m Squire Marks Ridgeway, daughter:
Samantha Jane Ridgeway m Denton Patten, daughter:
Donna Patten b.1889 m Ernest Paul Hohler, son:
Kenneth E. Hohler m Juanita Colleen Ryan, daughter:
Valerie lynn Hohler b.1951 m Maury Jones, 3 daughters & 8 grandchildren.

Thanks for any help given. The Ridg(e)ways in their genealogy book I was given, went back to 2 Ridgway brothers and pottery making in Staffordshire, very early 1700's. Most of these names were in the family book, in an order similar to what I've just done. The homemade genealogy book was filled with many pages and names, but put together very well, considering my great grandmother's sister's daughter, and her daughter worked on it for 20 years, w/o computers, but much hard work and traveling. My daughter Jessica, just took what information they gave, and went from James Veitch backwards. Why the difference of the Veitch/Veatch spelling I don't know.
I told my daughter (although she looks like a princess!) it was impossible that we could trace our roots to Kings, that no ordinary person could be a descendant of Royalty. We just want to know if it's correct, could it be true?

Hi again Ballylynn ... or Valerie lynn Hohler,
...
I've forwarded your genealogy to two of our members, Becca and Mona, who are each descended from Katherine and John. While they're not professional genealogists, I imagine they'll say your claim and line of descent is as valid as is theirs. There are about another dozen members of the Katherine Swynford Society who have similar (but quite different in precise detail) genealogies, so you're not alone in having this sort of ancestral background. If you want to know more about your ancestors, I would encourage you to log on to the Society website which is easily found if you do an Internet search for the
"Katherine Swynford Society"

Thank you redadmiral for your time and patience.
I'm terrible with the computer and websites especially. I have no idea how I found Absolute Astronomy, it just sort of happened. I will log on to the "Katherine Swynford Society" website, but once there, I'm not sure what to do. I feel funny saying I may be a direct descendant of John & Katherine, for it seems so way out there to me, especially now that I know who they were.
I'll have to wait and see if Becca and Mona look into this for me. I can see where family branches can grow and grow to where I sometimes think we are all related!
We'll see what transpires.
Many thanks,
Lynn

Hi again Lynn,
My name is Roger, by the way. I only chose "redadmiral" because that's the common name of the species of butterfly which illustrates my emails here.
You don't have to do anything on the Katherine Swynford Society website. Just have a look around, read some of the information about Katherine, look at the photos of places associated with Katherine and generally enjoy yourself ! I'd guess that perhaps half of our Society members are descended from Katherine and John but most of them don't know it and haven't been able to make the connections. My own ancestry goes back to the Tower family in Hingham, Norfolk, in the early 17th Century. I'd be greatly surprised if it can't be traced back further than that but my brother, who was the genealogist of the family, died last year.
Regards,
Roger

Hello Roger,
I'd never heard of the redadmiral butterfly, I thought maybe you were an Admiral of the Navy! Our butterfly here is the monarch.
I'm sorry for the loss of your brother. I'm sure you miss him a great deal. If you played detective, I'm sure you would be able to keep going back further in your family tree. It's funny how some people are really into genealogy and others could care less, as my brothers do. Even my dad whose great grandmother, and great aunt, (w/help from many) put together our book wasn't interested.
If it wasn't for my Ridgeway Genealogy book, we'd have never known any of our ancestors. It was that book which kicked in a great curiosity, when seeing names, dates, places born, places moved to, cemeteries, etc. Of people who were our 5th, 6th, and so forth, great grandparents, who w/o them we would never be.
I hope you at least try to go back further with the Tower family.
I will check out Katherine's website. John's history is very interesting, as is probably some of the Stewarts, who I really know nothing about. Since my mom was a Ryan I always thought of myself as Irish and German. Ah, you just never know.
Good luck to you,
Lynn