Wednesday, December 1, 2010

GENEALOGY AND ANCESTRY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1ST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Known as the "Father of His Country," George Washington was the indispensable man during and after the American Revolution. Not only did he serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the Revolution, but afterwards he served as President of the Federal Convention of 1787 which drafted the U.S. Constitution and was then unanimously elected as the first President of the United States. In surveys ranking the Presidents, he is consistently ranked first or second. At the time George Washington was elected President, there were no precedents to follow and the executive branch consisted only of himself and his Vice President, John Adams. One of George Washington's greatest attributes was his recognition of talent, with Washington organizing the most impressive Cabinet of any President, including Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury. George Washington also selected the site for and helped plan our nation's capitol and helped design the U.S. Capitol and the White House. He is also our only President to have led troops in battle during his presidency, which Washington did in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion. George Washington was born on February 22 (new calendar) or February 11 (Julian or old style calendar), 1732 at Pope's Creek, Wakefield Plantation, Westmoreland County, Virginia. After serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Washington retired to his Mount Vernon home. Despite his reluctance, Washington agreed to serve as President of the Federal Convention of 1787 which drafted and adopted the U.S. Constitution. Washington then went on to serve two terms as the first President of the United States. With respect to his ancestry, George Washington has one of the most extensively documented royal genealogies of all the Presidents, with his ancestry traced back to William "the Conqueror" and Charlemagne and most of the kings of England, Scotland, France, Spain, Denmark and even the Prince of Kiev (Russia). He is also descended from most of the Magna Carta surety barons (i.e. barons of England that signed the Magna Carta). George Washington is also shares a common descent from William Talvas Montgomery Le Despenser, born in 1100 in Lincolnshire, England, with presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George W. Bush as well as Princess Diana and Sir Winston Churchill. Also, George Washington shares a common descent with Barack Obama from Halfdan, King of Denmark and Sweden and also from Woden Oden. Also, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain shares a common descent from George Washington's great-grandfather Colonel Augustine Warner and his great-grandmother Mildred Reade. With former U.S. Presidents John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Woodrow Wilson, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama, George Washington shares a common descent from King Edward I of England, King Henry III of England, King John I "Lackland" of England, King Henry II of England, King Henry I of England, William "the Conqueror," Count Baldwin of Flanders and his daughter Matilda, King Robert I Capet of France, King Louis I "Pious" of France, and Charlemagne. George Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis and they had no children of their own, though George Washington raised the children and grandchildren of Martha from her previous marriage as his own. George Washington was the eldest son of his father, Augustine Washington, by his second marriage to Mary Ball. George Washington was close to his older half-brother Lawrence Washington, who acted as a mentor for young George when his father died. He was also close to his sister Betty and his brothers Charles, Samuel and John Augustine. For more information about George Washington and his immediate ancestors and to see the most extensive collection of portraits of George Washington on the internet, including the ancestral Washington home in England, see http://presidentgeorgewashington.wordpress.com/ For more information about the royal ancestry of George Washington and the other U.S. Presidents, see below postings. For a detailed family tree of George Washington see http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cssbct/cgi-bin/gedlkup.php/n=presidents?presidents406