Numismatics + Genealogy

I had been collecting ancient and medieval coins since my youth, which is probably one reason why I majored in ancient history. I began by collecting what I could afford, ranging from inexpensive Roman bronzes of the 3rd-4th centuries A.D. to pennies of Queen Victoria. Back in the sixties and seventies, such coins could be had for very little. There were a couple of shops in my home town of New Orleans that sold ancient coins. As my budget for collecting increased when I entered the workplace to earn a living, the quality of what I collected also improved. I primarily sought out coins of historical figures whom I found interesting.

On a parallel line, when I was very young, my mother & grandmothers created a "baby book" for me at birth. This included a basic family tree going back four generations. My grandmother always spoke about how her great-great grandfather had fought in the American Revolution. When my wife and I began having our own children, I wanted to document this history, so I contacted the Sons of the American Revolution, gathered together my documentation, and joined the local chapter where I live.

To me historical research is great fun, so I persisted in my folly, seeking out as many documents of as many branches of my family as possible until I would hit the proverbial "brick wall". Finally, a couple of years ago, I had collected enough documentation to prove descent of a couple of branches of my father's family back to Charlemagne and before. I joined the Order of the Crown of Charlemagne in the U.S.A. If you are interested in such things, it really isn't as difficult as one might imagine, because about 80% or more of people with some European ancestry are related to Charlemagne. The trick is in being persistent and finding the documentation.

In going through my coin collection, I discovered that I owned some coins struck by a few of my ancestors during their reigns. Since then, I have been seeking out coins of various branches of the deep roots of my family tree, primarily hammered penny/denier/denaro coins. I have included a few as illustrations for this article. So it is possible to combine the hobbies of Numismatics and Genealogy. It is about the only way I can think for one to find some wallet sized pictures of their long gone progenitors.