Ranulph De Wrenroc - Parents of Ranulph de Wrenroc

Started by Anne Brannen on Saturday, November 28, 2015
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11/28/2015 at 1:30 PM

Where did the information that Ranulph's parents are Rhys Sais ab Ednyfed and Efa verch Gruffydd come from? I can't find it myself, and it's seems so unlikely that a Norman before the invasion had Welsh parents.

But it looks like the profile got fairly recently revised, so I thought best to ask.

11/28/2015 at 2:06 PM

Herleva (Arlette) de Falaise was the partner of Robert "the Magnificent"Duke of Normandy. She was then married to Herluin, Count of Conteville. So, Ranulph's parents aren't the only problem.

11/28/2015 at 3:39 PM

There could easily have been more than one Herleve de Falaise, or she may have been married 3 times, as so many of these people were. Death due to illness or warfare was very common back then, and so was remarrying as a widow or widower, out of necessity (a woman alone, especially with children, would have been hard-pressed to survive).

Here's another Geni profile for the same name and date of birth which gives him different offspring and no mention of parents or wife: Ranulph de Wrenroc de Peverell. I think this one confused the son (who had 5 children) with the father, who had only one.

And here's the one from Ancestry where his birth is given as 1013 instead of 1009, and Welsh parents are ascribed:
http://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/ranulph-de-wrenroc_276127

And here's a 3rd from Wikitree with a birthdate of 1037 that someone must have used to connect his supposed son Ranulph de Peverel to him, even though the record here gives this Ranulph's father as Gronwy Pefr: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wrenroc-1

What's more confusing is that Peverel sounds Cornish so it could have been in Northern France as well as in Cornwall or Wales given the historical connection between Wales, Cornwall and Brittany (neighbor to Normandy) and the inhabitants of those regions having all been Bretons before the Normans came in. There were also Bretons in Normandy--the Celts that existed there before the Franks and later the Normans (Norwegian Vikings) conquered. Sometimes the existing lords gave fealty to their conquerors and were allowed to maintain their previous positions under the new overlord.

Further confusing things is that Wrenroc in this last instance seems to have been Anglicized to 'Ranulph.' Wrenroc definitely sounds more Bretonic than Teutonic ('Germanic').

Okay, this seems to clear things up considerably: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wrenroc-1#S48

I've been online too long and need to get off for awhile (my head is spinning!), so perhaps someone else can use the links I've provided to clean up this mess!

Thanks...

11/29/2015 at 11:20 AM

The parents given here, though, aren't Cornish. They are Welsh, living in Powys. (The mother is from even further north.)

They are from important Welsh families, too.

Not, so far, believing their connection to this profile at all. I'll give this a few more days, to see if any sources other than the online trees are out there.

12/1/2015 at 3:52 PM

Anne, please read this -- it gives a very clear explanation of what happened:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wrenroc-1#S48

12/1/2015 at 6:47 PM

Ah, got it. It's pure speculation, but it's not totally unreasonable.

And instead being Norman, the name has been sort of "Normaned" retroactively.

Excellent! Thanks for finding this!

I will add it to the About section, so that it's all clear.

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