The Amal Clan of the Ostrogoths

Okay, this is the big public announcement...

I've finally completed what I consider to be the top of my family tree, the Amal Clan of the Goths and the Ostrogoths. The Amal were the so-called "Royal Family" of the Ostrogoths, starting with King Ostrogotha and King Airmanareiks (Ermanarich, Ermanaric, Jormunrek, etc.), and continuing through (intermittently) to King Walamar, Vidimar, Theodimir, Theoderic the Great, etc. Their earliest known progenitor is Gapt, who was mentioned by Jordanes and Cassiodorus, the first great historians of the Goths (from the 6th century).

To the best of my knowledge, if you are a descendant of Charlemagne's wife, Hildegard of Vinzgouw, Gapt is probably her earliest known ancestor (albeit considered "legendary" as he is not backed by a contemporary documented source - he's backed by what appears to have been some sort of oral tradition documented about 500 years after his lifetime in Jordanes' Getica). He was born near the Baltic Sea in present Poland about the time of Christ's crucifixion.

These profiles all have their own master pages now (many thanks to both curators Justin Swanström and Erica Isabel Howton). Please feel free to browse through. If you have additional SOURCED information, I'd welcome you to include it in the About Me section. I'll be monitoring ("Following") them, of course, preventing "unsourced" attempts to "Vandalize" them.

(By the way Jadranka, I do appreciate the humor - very nice touch; but, in case the changes you attempted were intended to be serious, the only member I know of the Amals to actually join with the Vandals was Amalafreda, Vandalarius' granddaughter - for most of their early history, the Goths and the Vandals were apparently enemies.)

Anyway, these are the profiles that have been recently "Master Profiled" (plus one that Henn Sarv got to much earlier). Much work still to be done in cleaning up the mess at the base of this branch, but hopefully the Amals being established will help us all in getting closer to fixing up this area of the tree.

Progenitors of the Amals:

Gapt, Progenitor of the Amals
Hulmul, Progenitor of the Amals
Augis, Progenitor of the Amals
Amal "The Fortunate"

Early Amals:

Hisarnis "Man of Iron" of the Amal Clan
Ostrogotha "the Patient", King of the Goths (fl. 230-250)
Hunuil of the Goths
Athal "the Mild" of the Greuthungi
Odwulf of the Greunthungi
Achiulf of the Greuthungi
Ansila of the Greuthungi
Ediulf of the Greuthungi

Airmanareiks-Eutharic line:

Airmanareiks, King of the Goths (350-375)
Hunimund "the Beautiful" of the Ostrogoths (376-405)
Thorismund "The Chaste" of the Ostrogoths (405-411)
Berimud, Counselor to Theodorid I of the Visigoths
Wideric, Exiled King of the Ostrogoths
Flavius Eutharicus Cilliga, Consul of Rome (519)

Vultwulf-Amalasuentha line

Vultwulf, Prince of the Greuthungi
Valaravans, son of Vultwulf
Vinitharius "the Just", Warlord of the Ostrogoths (375-376)
Vandalarius, son of Vinitharius
King Walamir of the Ostrogoths (449-469)
King Vidimir of the Ostrogoths (449-473)
Vidimir the Younger
King Theodomir of the Ostrogoths (449-474)
(Unknown) Queen of the Ostrogoths
Ereleuva, Concubine of Theodimir
Theodoric "the Great", King of the Ostrogoths (474-526)
Audofledis of the Salian Franks
Amalasuintha, Queen of Italy (534)
Traguilla (Slave, alleged lover of Amalasuintha)

Bonuses:

Amalafreda "the Elder", Queen of the Vandals
(MP'ed by Henn Sarv on 21 September)
Thrasamund, King of the Vandals
Gento, brother of Huneric

Okay, back to work on my earlier projects... -Ben M. Angel

<claps and curtsies>

Thank you so much, Ben. This is a huge new contribution to geni.com.

This is fantastic - Gapt, Progenitor of the Amals is my 45th great grandfather!

http://www.geni.com/path/Noah+Tutak+is+related+to+Gapt+Progenitor+o...

Should we collect these profiles into a project?

Hi Noah:

If anyone would like to turn them into a project, I wouldn't object.

As to 45th ggf... seems like Gapt was somewhere in the upper 60s for me when I first added him to the tree in July. May have to scan through the birth and death dates on your lineage there. It's possible, of course:

1980 years / 47 generations = about 42 years per generation. But I'd be guessing that there are probably some generations skipped in that line. Either that or it's very much a paternal lineage...

Ever onward toward a more accurate tree, of course... -Ben.

Ben,

I can make the Project IF you give me a good summary URL for the overview to copy and paste.

You should probably also do a very brief explanation of the naming conventions you used.

Ben, you should path it again. I get 44th gg from Gapt which is consistent with Noah's results: you will get in the same neighborhood.

My lines go through Kings of Scotland, Vikings, and Franks, which have all been going through intense clean up activity.

I have some confidence in accuracy of my pedigree to here:
Jean MaCrory of Bute

But there are likely some gaps of course.

Truly a wonderful addition. Thanks, Ben. It took some doing, but I finally got Geni to find a path to Gapt as a 42nd great grandfather. I'm particularly pleased that you resisted the equation Gapt = Gautr = Odin. (No offense to our Odin fans, I hope.) I have some stuff to send you to help flesh out the detail. Will do that soon, I promise.

Bravo, Ben! Thanks! I'm loving history more and more - especially when I become part of it. Gapt is a 44th great grandfather.

Okay... couldn't find the original lineage I saved, but I retraced it from one I did for Yaroslav Mudriy (Grand Prince of Kiev Rus); will share here starting at Generation 5 (with my daughter being Generation 0 and myself at Generation 1).

The Yaroslav lineage shares the common line through to Hugues de Vermandois, "faint-hearted" leader of the First Crusade. As a key, I've put the generation number first, then the name, then their birth and death years, then where they were, and lastly the year they became parent:

53. Theodomir (425-474, Hungary to Greece, 43)
52. Amalafreda (468-526, Hungary to Frankish Germany, Unknown)
51. Amfleda the Younger of Thuringia (d. 556, Thuringia, Unknown, but it isn’t 10)
50. Rodelinde of Thuringia (510-560, Thuringia to Italy, Unknown)
49. Grasulf of Friuli (d. 571, Lombard Italy, Unknown)
48. Gisulf of Friuli (d. 590, Lombard Italy, Unknown, but it isn’t 12)
47. Daughter of Gisulf (b. 585, Lombard Italy, 15)
46. “Fara of Bavaria” (600-641, Italy to Bavaria, 25)
45. Theodo II von Bayern (625-716, Bavaria, 32)
44. Daughter of Theodo II (657-707, Bavaria, 18)
43. Huoching von Alemannia (675-744, Bavarian Rhine, 60)
42. Imma von Alemannia (735-783, Bavarian Rhine, 23)
41. Hildegard, wife of Charlemagne (758-783, Rhine region, 19)
40. Carloman/Pepin I d’Italie (777-810, Italy, 20)
39. Bernard I d’Italie (797-818, Italy, 18)
38. Pepin I (de Vermandois?, 815-850, Picardy, 33)
37. Heribert I de Vermandois (848-907, Picardy, 32)
36. Beatrix de Vermandois (880-931, Picardy, 18)
35 Hugues the Great (898-956, France, 42)
34. Hugues Capet (940-996, France, 32)
33. Robert II de France (972-1031, France, 36)
32. Henri I de France (1008-1060, France, 45)
31. Hugues I “Le Maisne” de Vermandois (Comte de Vermandois, First Crusade Leader, 1053-1102, Normandy, 35)
30. Isabelle de Warenne (de Vermandois, 1088-1131, Normandy to Surrey England, 32)
29. Gundred de Lancaster (de Warenne, 1120-1166, Surrey England to Northern England, 34)
28. William II de Lancaster (Baron of Kendal, 1154-1184, Northern England, 18)
27. Hawise FitzReinfrid (de Lancaster, 1172-1226, Northern England, 28)
26. Hawise de Brus (de Lancaster, 1200-1246, Northern England, 30)
25. Agnes de Faucomberge (de Brus, 1230-1280, Yorkshire, England, 40)
24. Anice Engaine (de Faucomberge, 1270-1323, Yorkshire, England, Unknown age)
23. Sir John Engaine (Unknown)
22. Elizabeth Pabenham (Engaine, Unknown)
21. Katherine Aylesbury (Pabenham, 1372-1436, West Country, England, 35)
20. Eleanor Stafford (Aylesbury, 1407-1467, West Country, England, 20)
19. Sir Humphrey III Stafford (Yorkist Leader in War of the Roses, 1427-1486, West Country, England, 44)
18. Anne Neville (Stafford, 1471-1513, West Country to Yorkshire, England, 23)
17. Margaret Willoughby (Neville, 1494-1517, West Country, England, 16)
16. Elizabeth Greville (Willoughby, 1510-1562, West Country, England, 45)
15. Catherine Reed (Greville, 1555-1611, West Country, England, 23)
14. Elizabeth Brent (Reed, 1578-1631, West Country England, 34)
13. Anne Calvert (Brent, 1612-1645, West Country England to Maryland Colony, 30)
12. William Calvert (1642-1682, Yorkshire England to Maryland Colony, 26)
11. George Calvert (1668-1739, Maryland to Virginia Colony, 26)
10. George Calvert (1694-1771, Virginia Colony, 30)
9. John Calvert (1724-1788, Virginia Colony, 37)
8. Chloe Jackson (Calvert, 1761-1850, Virginia to Kentucky, 17)
7. William Evan Jackson (1778-1867, Virginia to Kentucky, American Civil War, 46)
6. William Jackson (1824-1883, Kentucky to Indiana, 24)
5. Burrel A. Jackson (1848-1908, Indiana to Wyoming, 47)

The Lombard lineage is a bit messed up at the moment, as people are still merging in with dates that are completely off (probably one of my next projects is to fix all that). And of course the Charlemagne zone between him and Robert I remains a complete mess, with Charlemagne coming up as Robert's grandfather through Adelaide (who died in childhood - neat trick, that).

Now, reviewing earlier correspondence with my wife, Theodomir was originally generation 57, so I lost 4 generations somewhere by cutting out the Jean de Conteville link to the House of Flandres (which is apparently wholly fictitious). But this lineage I've greater confidence in (though the "Fara of Bavaria" link is still weakly supported).

I think another problem area is Argotta. She doesn't come up as a daughter of Theodimir in research, and her apparently lifespan and birthing years are appearing to be frightfully long.

In short, I think everyone coming up with early 40s for generations to Gapt is probably a case of Garbage-In-Garbage-Out. But it at least highlights problem areas in the tree that need fixing.

Okay, now to respond to Erica:

Summary overview? Probably the best ones would be the first three from Hisarnis - the one for Jordanes' Getica, the one for Medlands Hungary Kings, and the one for English Wikipedia's list of Ukrainian Rulers. Also, Hodgkin's work on Theodoric was useful for providing the epithets. Also the link to the Ermanrich the Goth action figure... :)

And a response to Justin: If the research would have supported Gaut, I'd have gone with it (I think I originally did). But there was a good passage that described some pretty strong reasons to go against it (as there was against linking Hulmul to Humble of the Danes and Angles, and Hisarnis to the Celts, though his name is actually Celtic for Iron). In the end, we had only one source for these names and their connections to anything - all else is speculative with nothing to back it.

To everyone else - I'm encouraging you to keep building up the tree. We're getting there...

PAX/PEACE Dear Mr. Ben, Kind Sir. How are you all doing there today now then, Angel? Well? God bless you real good, Sir. XO I LOVE this line! I have most of what you have, but you have exceeded my research by about 3 generations! XO WOO HOO! We's CUZINS, Mr. Ben! XO This is just the coolest thing since popcorn at the movies! I LOVE IT! Thank you for all of this hard work! Bless your heart! XO

Thank you Ben!!!!!

Gapt, Progenitor of the Amals is your 48th great grandfather.

Thanks Anita, but not by my count... :) (We still need to fix the tree a bit... see above.)

45 generations through one of my favourite legendary Vikings, Sigurd "snake-in-the-eye".... but that's a minority opinion about Sigurd, not his MP...

Which Sigurd is this one? Hadn't known about that lineage into the Ostrogoths...

Harald, I've seen a few mistakes in the MPs too, such as imaginary daughters where the couple (according) to have had only one known son... and my line came from the imaginary daughter, so that's a 'non-line' right there.

Harald, I've seen a few mistakes in the MPs too, such as imaginary daughters where the couple (according) to have had only one known son... and my line came from the imaginary daughter, so that's a 'non-line' right there.

Ben,

Here's the path between the Master profile for http://www.geni.com/people/Sigurd-Orm-i-%C3%B8je-Snake-Eye-Ragnarss... and your top 100 ancestor, Gapt, Progenitor of the Amals:

http://www.geni.com/path/Sigurd+Orm+i+%C3%B8je+Snake+Eye+Ragnarsson...

Let's try the validated Snake Eye again:

Sigurd "Orm-i-øje/Snake-Eye" Ragnarsson

Hmm -- possible mix up here?

Hildur Heidreksdatter

Curator note is : Don't mix up with Hildis of the Vandals.

I'd say it's quite likely a mix-up... in any case, Amfleda is targeted as one of the next ones to be worked over more completely, once I get through with all the merge request stuff I'm trying to work through today. (Someday, I'll come back to Salem...)

I've been finding more witch trials you know. Just not ready to go there.

Definetly something hokey in the relationship line on Geni.

To see if the problem causing my relationship (48th ggreat-grandfather) had been fixed to closer to what Ben thought it was (mid 50's), I clicked on Gapt's profile again.

Today he is my 17th great aunt's 30th great grandfather....???

Sounds like an issue in the Great Capetian-Carolingian War Zone... Of course these will all be taken care of at some point, but this lineage makes a great barometer on the state of the tree.

Acutally, I found that Amalasuintha was separated from Theodoric near the bottom of the Amal lineage. I've fused her back into the tree... I'm wondering if that might be the fix on the relationship line...

I just re-ran it Ben...no change in my relationship to Gapt.

Will keep looking it over... right now I'm trying to get Theodoric untangled... still trying to figure out who Argotta is...

Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to... put a family tree together...

Anita,

Remember that the database is re-indexed several times a week, so changes made in the tree -- even a substantial generational change -- may not be immediately reflected.

Erica, but I want it NOW! :)

You got me so curious about "Snake Eye" I had to check him out. He's my 27th gr grandfather.

Oh...no, Erica, I didn't know that!