Four individuals who were of royal descent have been identified as ancestors of the 
family of Loren E. Somes, Sr.  They are Gov. Thomas Dudley of the Massachusetts Bay 
Colony, Constant Southworth of 
Plymouth Colony (and step-son of Gov. William Bradford), Elizabeth Stratton, the wife 
of John Thorndike, of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and George Morton of Plymouth 
Colony (purported author of "Mourt's Relation").  The royal 
connection of George Morton is established on weak evidence at this time.  One 
immigrant, Katherine (Marbury) Scott, 
is the ancestor of Joseph Gerald O'Connor, son-in-law of Loren E. Somes, Sr., and is 
included in this site.  The ancestry of all five have been included in Michel L. 
Call's monumental work "The Royal Ancestry Bible: Royal Ancestors of 300 Colonial 
American Families" published by the author in 2005.

The connection between Loren E. Somes and the four individuals and Katherine Marbury 
to Joseph Gerald O'Connor may be found at 
The Somes Family.

The purpose of this site is to extend the ancestry of the five cited colonial 
immigrants, using the skelatal framework of Michel L. Call's published charts and 
fleshing them out with detailed information where available.  For individuals 
contained in The Royal Ancestry Bible, the text will start with the reference to it 
in brackets in the form [RAB vol.,chart,number]or [RAB vol., page]. I also intend to 
utilize Wikipedia and other reliable sites by linking to them whenever that appears 
to be appropriate.  I do not have access to all the publications that were referenced 
by Michel L. Call, and so will be citing older references and will take note where 
there are differences between those sources and Michel Call's charts.

The information about families from ancient and medieval times provides names of 
ancestors and descendands, frequently with skipped generations (example: a spouse may 
be described as the great granddaughter of so-and-so), and cites offices, occupations 
and achievements of individuals, but is significanly short in providing such things 
as dates and places of birth, marriage and death.  As a result, dates have been 
assigned by some researchers based upon other facts associated with individuals and 
so such information varies greatly from one source to another, and must be viewed 
with skepticism.  Greater reliance can be given to the relationships between 
generations obtained from essentially reliable sources until, as some lines do, 
venture into the realm of myth and fantasy.

The early history was maintained for centuries as an oral tradition brfore it was 
committed to writing.  Among the European peoples the earliet written histories 
occurred in the sixth century.  They were written primarily at the behest of the 
ruling families, and may contain mythologic as well as historic people.  Early naming 
was by son (or daughter) to father (examples: (Welch) Einion Ap (son of) Cunedda; 
Nest Verch (daughter of) Cunedda), or place (examples: of England, of Scotland, 
(French) de Vermandois; (Germanic) von or van.  Some Welch names may appear to be 
unpronouncable because letter combinations in Welch have a different sound than they 
do in English; for example, the Welch name Gruffydd would be pronounced Griffith.

Many genealogies attribute titles to individuals that they might not have enjoyed 
during their lifetime even thoughh their powers, duties, obligations and privileges 
would be equivalent to one bearing the title.  A Duke was a direct vassal of the 
sovereign.  A Count, a Marquess, an Earl, or a Viscount is a progressively lower 
order subvassal to the sovereign or a vassal to a Duke.  A Baron was a royal title of lowest rank.

Unless otherwise cited, the source used was Michel L. Call;,The Royal Ancestry Bible: 
Royal Ancestors of 300 Colonial American Families, Volumes 1 through 3; 2005, and the 
Foundation for Medieval Genealogy 
Medieval Lands Project web site, a very well documented source.