Help me understand DNA testing

[ForresterModern]

Academic in the house. Academic cap on. I don't to dash your hopes, or let you risk embarassment, when you drop in for a cup of sugar at the neighboring castle BUT a knight would be considered aristocracy, as opposed to royalty, which is strictly the king's family.

Galician

Although the connection is loose, according to family historians :

"BALDWIN III, of Flanders, the Forester, ‘of the handsome beard’, who married the daughter of the Count of Luxemburg. This Forester was a great warrior and defended his Kingdom against the united forces of Emperour Henry, King Robert of France and the Duke of Normandy. He died in 1034 and was succeeded by his son:

6. BALDWIN IV, the Forester, called ‘LeDebonair’, who married Princess Adela, daughter of Robert, King of France. They had four children:

7. i. Baldwin V, the Forester

8. ii. Robert Forester, who conquered the Principality, Frisland.

9. iii. Matilda (or Maud) who married William the Conqueror.

10. iv. Sir Richard Forester, (sometimes Latinized, Ricardus Forestarius.)

10. SIR RICHARD FORESTER, mentioned above as the first to naturally bear the name, was head of the powerful Northumberland family of Foresters. "



Sir Richard Forrester was brother in law to William the Conqueror and reportedly his right hand lieutenant in William's conquest which extended north to about the Firth of Forth. Interestingly Corstorphine, parts of the Stirling region, and Northumberland were in some fashion seats of power for the Forrester clan from then on, with a disproportionate distribution of Forresters/Forsters/Fosters represented there in old and recent census data.

If you note more than one "Forrester" married royalty (Baldwin III to the daughter of the Count of Luxembourg, his son Baldwin IV to the daughter of the king of France, and their daughter Matilda to William the Conqueror). There are supposedly several other reports of male branches of the Forrester line marrying into various branches of a couple of the other historically royal bloodlines:

"18. SIR REGINALD who fought at Bannockburn in 1314. A number of his descendants were great chieftains, many being knighted, and were closely related to the Royal Families of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. "

As I said above I am still verifying the american lineage to the English/Scottish lineage, but feel confidant that I am only a year or less away from completing that task. DNA may be the final arbiter one way or the other, however. The knight to which I originally referred was a Sir Richard Forster who allegedly came to america in the early 1600's, landed and was "landed" in Virginia and begat the vast majority of the Forster/Foster families and descendants of those families that originated out of Virginia, one of which we believe to be mine. I am only a couple generations away from making my connection to the Old Country through Sir Richard (lineage verified back to the mid-late 1600's in the appropriate counties in Virginia).



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