The Knights of St. John and Malta was a Canadian and U.S. chivalric association. Originally a branch of Religious and Military Order of the Knights of Malta in Scotland, it was chartered as an independent organization in 1875 it was chartered as an independent organization under the name Supreme Grand Black Encampment of North America. The name of the organization…
Heraldic Lore
“Swan, (lat. cygnus, fr. cygne): this graceful bird has for various reasons been a favourite charge in armorial bearings. Swans are generally blazoned as proper, i.e. white, else they are described as argent, but they are frequently beaked and legged of other tinctures. The bird is generally borne with expanded wings, and it seems desirable…
Company of Saint John
The Company of Saint John is a chivalric confraternity founded in 1914 as Rock Island Commandery (Illinois) as a local chapter of the Knights of St. John and Malta, an order that claimed to be a branch of the historic Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. The original patron was St. George, the patron saint…
Cousin Baiting
I love the title of this blog post. “Cousin Baiting: What is It, Should You Do It?“, at Occasional Genealogist <theoccasionalgenealogist.com>, January 2017. A zillion years ago, so say maybe about 2007 or 2008, there was an article somewhere about “Cousin Bait”. I wish I could find it again. It was my first introduction to…
Washington to Odin
Here’s a fun one. Even in the world of fantasy genealogy, some claims stand out. Every so often we hear the claim George Washington, the first American president, was a male-line descendant of Odin. Of course it’s not true, and of course it’s a fascinating idea. It all goes back to 1879, when Albert Welles…