“The story of my life doesn’t exist. Does not exist. There’s never any centre to it. No path, no line. There are great spaces where you pretend there used to be someone, but it’s not true, there was no one.”
Marguerite Duras, The Lover.
My interest in family history came from visiting my great grandmother in hospital when I was still very young and she was a very elderly lady. She told me lots of interesting stories, and like most children, I just assumed that they were fairy tales, like Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. It was only years later that I realised that these were not the same tales that were told to everyone else. These fantastic stories had actually happened to my great grandmother and her family. I just wish that I had been able to record them for posterity rather than relying on my childhood memories, which could not tell the difference between fact and fiction.
I would like to thank the owners of this blog for allowing me to reproduce here some information from a profile that I believed had been lost some ten years ago.
Ken MacQuarrie, BBC Scotland director.
I will be eternally grateful the late Ken Cargill, former Head of News & Current Affairs at BBC Scotland, who lived close to Guthrie Castle, for his patience and all his invaluable help and encouragement. He was almost like a second father to me and is sadly missed.
This section is merely to annoy my husband. 😉 I was interested to note that my husband Giulio and I are related at least three times.
One of my favourite connection goes way back to the 13th century. My husband and I are 19th cousins three times removed via Teobaldo Visconti, Rettore delle Valli Leventina e Blenio and his wife Anastasia Pirovanno. Giulio descends in the direct male line from their son Umberto “Pico” Visconti, Feudatario di Somma, Vergiate, Golasecca, Lonate Pozzolo e Ferno, while I descend from his elder brother, Matteo Visconti, Lord of Milan and Imperial Vicar. So, although I may not have been born a Visconti, by Absolute primogeniture, I am the senior. 😉
At the time, I had no idea who I was snapping.
On 17th January 1995, when I was just six years old, I encountered a wonderful lady who was very kind to me at an exhibition that my parents attended in Paris, entitled ”Une Vie Pour La Vie’‘, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Louis Pasteur. I had no idea that the kind lady was none other than the Honourable Pamela Digby, United States Ambassador to France, ex-daughter-in-law of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, and sister of Jaquetta Digby, the widow of my first cousin three times removed, David Pelham Guthrie-James MP, MBE, DSC. Sadly, Pamela Harriman died just two years after I had met her, on 5th February 1997 at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and apart from that one encounter, I never saw her again. At a young age, complicated relationship concepts were totally beyond me. However, the encounter was a memorable one and as I grew older, I was keen to know how we were connected. See The Guthrie Connection to Winston Churchill and the Loch Ness Monster for more details.
Construction workers in St Petersburg have unearthed a pre-revolutionary treasure trove, found in a derelict palace during restoration works.
More than 1,000 pieces of precious tableware, cutlery and jewelry, were found in the derelict palace of the Russian noble families Trubetsky and Naryshkin, wrapped in newspapers dating from 1917 and hidden in a secret storage area between two floors of the palace.
Construction company Intarsia is conducting restoration work at the old palace and declared the find last week. The company said the first part of the treasure was found where two of its building workers were apparently discovered trying to smuggle out some pieces under building rubbish. Further investigation then revealed a larger hoard.
The found objects will be handed over to the St. Petersburg city Committee for Historical Preservation, but observers expect that there will be private claims on the treasure from surviving relatives of the two families.
More recently, I also discovered that there are not many of us left. A rather spectacular 100 year old treasure horde was discovered in Russia a few years ago and no (at least no genuine) family members had come forward to make claims on it. This was unsurprising. When I looked into those who appeared to have hidden their valuables in 1917, I could only find eight living descendants of the entire extended family: my great grandmother, grandmother, mother, uncle, sister, niece, nephew and myself.
My specific aims are to trace my direct paternal and maternal lines back as far as possible. Until recently, I believed that my paternal line was purely Scottish, but it seems that the late Professor Geoffrey Barrow believed that the Guthries of Guthrie descended from the de la Carneille Lords of Guthrie whose origins were French. See Were the de la Carneille family the ancestors of the Guthries and our link to Pierre Corneille and Charlotte Corday? for more details.
Professor Barrow’s work also inspired me to look into our descent from King Robert the Bruce. See The Guthrie descent from King Robert the Bruce for more details.
I was especially interested in my maternal line as apart from me, each of my direct female ancestors seemed to have married at a very early age and had a child before they were twenty. My own maternal line had taken a long journey and can be traced from Scotland, to France, to Russia and then back to the Jambakurian-Orbeliani (ჯამბაკურიან-ორბელიანი) family in the old Kingdom of Georgia.
Obviously, maternal lines are much more difficult to trace than paternal lines due to the fact that a son usually takes his father’s name, whereas generally, when a woman marries, she takes her husband’s surname – or at least her children do. In Scotland, traditionally women retained their maiden names as can be seen from many entries in older Birth, Marriage & Death register entries and in census reports.
My maternal line can be traced back from MacDonald (Scotland/France) to du Barry (France/Tunisia), to Romanova (France/Russia) to Vorontzova-Daschkova (Russia) to Naryshkina (Switzerland/Russia) and then to Djambakouriane-Orbeliani (Georgia). Which language to choose is not always evident as the family moved frequently from countries country and multiple languages were often used.
Perhaps my favourite relation is my fourth cousin 22 times removed Robert d’Artois, Lord of Conches-en-Ouche, of Domfront, and of Mehun-sur-Yèvre, Count of Beaumont-le-Roger and Earl of Richmond.
The following, fictional, response by Robert to his cousin Isabelle of France, wife of Edward II of England’s enquiry whether he had had an good journey, epitomises his reputation:
”Exécrable, madame, horrifique, répondit Robert d’Artois. Une tempête à rendre les tripes et l’âme. J’ai cru ma dernière heure venue, au point que je me suis mis à confesser mes péchés à Dieu. Par chance il y en avait un si grand nombre que le temps d’en dire la moitié nous étions arrivés. J’en garde assez pour le retour.”
Il éclata de rire, ce qui fit trembler les vitraux.
”Maurice Druon, Les Rois Maudits, 1955.”’
For more details see Robert d’Artois and Maurice Druon’s Les Rois Maudits, 1955..
The Family
Direct Ancestors
My great (x2) grandmother, Mariya Illarionovna Vorontzova-Daschkova. Some say they can see a family resemblance.
My great (x3) grandmother, Irina Vassilievna Naryshkina.
My great (x3) grandfather, Aleksandr Mikhailovich.
My great (x3) grandmother, Kseniya Aleksandrovna. People have said that I am her spitting image, but I can’t see it myself.
My great (x4) grandfather, James Alexander Guthrie, 4th Baron of Craigie, DL, JP.
Family portrait including my great (x4) grandfather, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (back left) with his mother Marie Alexandrovna von Senarclens de Grancy (front left) and father Aleksandr Nikolayevich (front right).
My great (x4) grandmother, ჯამბაკურიან-ორბელიანი – Fevronia Pavlovna Djambakouriane-Orbeliani.
My great (x5) grandfather, Christian zu Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
My great (x5) grandmother, ჯამბაკურიან-ორბელიანი – Elisaveta Dmitrievna Djambakouriane-Orbeliani.
My great (x6) grandmother Emilia Murray, wife of James Guthrie, 2nd Baron of Craigie.
My great (x6) grandmother, Maria Ivanovna Djambakouriane-Orbeliani.
My great (x7) grandmother, Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, Empress Catherine the Great of Russia.
My great (x7) grandmother, Tekle Bagrationi, Princess of Georgia.
My great (x8) grandfather, Erekle Bagrationi, Heracles II, King of Kartli & Kakheti (Georgia).
My great (x8) grandmother, Darejan Dadiani, Heracles II, Queen Consort of Kakheti, and later Kartli-Kakheti.
My great (x12) grandparents, Teimuraz I, King of Kakheti with his wife Khoreshan.
თეიმურაზ I,მეუღლესთან ხორეშანთან ერთად (კასტელის ნახატი).
My great (x13) grandfather, King James VI of Scotland and I of England.
My great (x16) grandmother, Lady Janet Stewart.
‘Janet Stewart was born, 17 July 1502, the illegitimate daughter of King James IV of Scotland and a mistress, Isabel Stewart, Countess of Bothwell, daughter of James Stewart, third Earl of Buchan.”
My great (x17) grandmother, Isabella Trastámara – Isabella I, Queen regnant of Castille & Leon, Queen consort of Aragon.
Arms of my great (x17) grandfather, James Guthrie, 1st Baron of Guthrie.
‘James Guthrie, 1st Baron of Guthrie held the offices of Captain of King James II’s Bodyguard, Sheriff of Forfar, Lord Treasurer of Scotland, Comptroller of the Exchequer, Lord Register, and Lord Chief Justice of Scotland.”
My great (x21) grandfather, [[Bruce-129 |King Robert I]] of Scotland, known as “The Bruce”.
My great (x24) grandfather, Sir William Wallace, Guardian of Scotland (contested whether Wallace had descendants).
My great (x24) grandfather, [[Capet-5 |King Louis IX]] of France, Saint Louis.
My great (x25) grandfather, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, “the Great”, Prince of Gwynedd & Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn.
My great (x26) grandfather, [[Clare-673 |Sir Gilbert de Clare]], 4th Earl of Hertford, one of the twenty-five medieval barons who were surety for Magna Carta in 1215.
My great (x27) grandfather, [[Dunkeld-68 |King David I]] of Scots.
My great (x28) grandfather, [[Normandie-32 |William I]] the Conqueror, King of England & Duke of Normandy.
My great (x28) grandfather, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, El Cid, as portrayed by Charleton Heston.
My great (x31) grandfather, Hugues Capet, King of France.
My great (x35) grandfather, Ælfred of Wessex King of the West Saxons and Anglo-Saxons.
My great (x36) grandfather, Kenneth I “mac Ailpín”, King of the Picts and Scots.
My great (x48) grandfather, Fergus Mór mac Eirc, King of Dál Riata.
And that concludes my nostalgic look at our ancestors from 10 years ago.
In part two, I will look at some of our cousins.
Vecchio 