THE PEACH/PEACHEY PROJECT The Electronic Peach Tree Issue 4 Editor: John Harding Peach Peachroot@aol.com

(webmaster note: the following "graphic" looked fine in e-mail, but "hits an iceberg and breaks up" in html.)

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THE H. M. S. PEACHEY PREPARING TO SAIL

In the last issue, I introduced the Peach/Peachey Cruise Line. Now, as a result of some of your suggestions, our cruise liner has been christened "The H.M.S. Peachey."

The ship is docked in the harbor at Oslo, Norway. On August 15, 1998, it will set sail into the vast seas of our priceless Peach/Peachey genealogical heritage. Those on board will continue to receive this "Electronic Peach Tree" free of charge on a regular basis. Furthermore, you will be the ones to determine which direction we sail and what treasures we will seek.

So if you want to join us for the cruise of a lifetime, get on board by emailing me to let me know you want to go with us. If I don't hear from you by August 15, you will be dropped from this mailing list and will be left out of much of the priceless treasure we discover.

Since the last newsletter, 10 more have come aboard. We welcome two from Australia: Tristan Peach and Gnome Peach; two from Canada: Robert F. Peach and Anthony Peach; one from Saudi Arabia: Dr.William S. Peachey; and five from the states: Kenneth Peach, Harold G.Peach, Jr., Sharon Woodcock, Donald Ratekin and Bill Peach.

OUR SCANDINAVIAN DESCENT

Why are we docked at Oslo, Norway? Simply because that is the heart of the area where our Peach/Peachey ancestors lived. That's right. Before we were English, we were Normans from Normandy, France. Before Normandy, we were Vikings from Scandinavia.

We come from a fierce, fighting clan whose daily occupation was to discover new lands and then conquer them. To do this, the Vikings would stop at nothing, leaving a path of destruction and death and dastardly deeds. As glorified as it may be to have been a Viking, we must admit they were a blood- thirsty people, set on doing anything and everything to conquer the world.

It was not a pretty site in Normandy when Gongu-Hrolf (nicknamed "Rollo") led his Norsemen to conquer the French peoples in 911. Blood was shed, and the slaughter was great. Then for over 150 years, our people ruled the land, intermarrying with the French and the Flemings of Normandy.

According to Edwin Peck, these intermarriages, "lowered the stature and changed the colouring of the Peche and others."

(Note: We are having a lightning storm right now. So I must break this newsletter in two parts and send this first part before I have a black out. To be continued later.)

THE PECHE ANCESTRY 600-911 A.D.

For over 12 years I have boldly made the statement that our ancestry can be traced further than any others. People who have been zealously searching their roots for umpteen years compare notes with me. They are impressed they can trace their ancestry to the early eighteen or nineteenth century. However, they are astonished when I share with them the Peach/Peachey roots can be traced back to one common ancestor in 1066 A.D.

Then, when I have them where I want them, I place before them the ultimate shocker. "We can trace our roots all the way back to Scandinavia in 600 A.D." No one has been able yet to even try to match this with their ancestral claims. If someone can, I would love to meet them. But as far as I know now, the Peach/Peachey ancestry can be traced further back than that of anyone else.

When I discovered the unpublished manuscript of Edwin Peck that was written in 1944, it was like I discovered gold. But I was somewhat skeptical, treating his work as if it were "fool's gold", just too good to be true. I spent years continuing to diligently research all he wrote, most of which came from records in England. But in America, I still wasn't totally convinced of the authenticity of his work. I must prove it myself by seeing the writings in England from which he was quoting.

How grateful I am to this day that in 1989 a band of people rallied their support and money to finance a 30-day sabbatical research trip to Great Britain. During those 30 days, I worked day and night ardently searching every library, every book, every article and every property that I could find on our priceless Peche ancestry.

Not one piece of evidence I found ever contradicted the writings of Edwin Peck. Every work he referred to was authentic, and every statement he made that I was able to verify was true to fact.

I must say, when I left England, I felt like rather than "fools gold", I had in my possession the most precious gold ever found - in the writings of Edwin Peck.

It's with this confidence in his work that I share with you his account of the Scandinavian ancestry of the Peche. As we enter this period from the time of Christ to the Viking era beginning ca.800, we must realize that much of it is built on legend and mythology that is difficult to document. With this is mind, let's see what Peck says about our rich heritage in the land of the Vikings.

FROM THE KINGS OF SWEDEN

"The Peche ancestor in male line," writes Peck, "seems to be Ingjiald, king of Upsala (or Upland Sweden)." This was the son of Aune II, king of Upsala and Gauthild, daughter of King Algaut of Vestergothland. Peck asserts:

"The ancestors of King Ingjiald of Upsala ruled the Upland Swedes as absolute kings, called originally Drotts, from beginning of the Christ Era in direct succession in male line."

Peck's source for this is The Ancient Laws of Vestergothland (ca.1100). When he wrote this in 1944, he said, this is "all we now have of history as the oldest written document now known in Sweden." Peck continues:

"For many generations the kings of Upsala before King Ingjiald married for their chief wives, generally, daughters of the Royal House of Vestergothland and also married kinswomen of the royal house." These were "daughters of the drotts or kings of Ingria, in what is now Russia and Finland." Then it was "called Yngvi Land, after Yngvi Frey the last ruler of the Swedes and Goths who was believed of divine origin."

"That part of Russia and Finland was later called Ingria and Ingermanland and ruled originally by princes of the Royal House of Upsala from the time the Swedes and Goths came North."

According to Peck, the Finns didn't migrate north until about 500 years after the Swedes and Goths. And the Danes (a kindred tribe to the Goths) settled first in the extreme south of Sweden. Much later, they moved to the islands and what is now the Jutland peninsula.

FROM THE KINGS OF NORWAY

"The ancestors of the Peche of England in male line were Normans," writes Peck, "whose ancestors were Norse and who descend by several lines from the Jarls (Earls) of Mere in Norway." These "descend from the very early folk or district kings of Norway."

"Around 650 A.D. the ancestors of the Peche in Norway lived for a time in Vermland and Vestergothland in Sweden and were then Swedes on male side and West Goths on female side." Peck continues to say that they "were driven from Upland Sweden ca. 640 A.D. by the conquest of Eastern Sweden by the great Dane King Yngvar I (called Vidfamme or the Wide Spreading), who then ruled most of the North around the Baltic."

To summarize all this, the Peach/Peachey roots can be traced back to the Swedes and the Goths. When our ancestors in northern (or Upland) Sweden were chased out of Sweden in ca. 640 A.D., they fled to Norway. There they continued their royal heritage through what was to become the kings of Norway.

In fact, Peck even names King Healfdene III the Black and his great son Hargagr as the first kings of all Norway, consolidating all the folk kingdoms of Norway.

Peck also has traced the female side of the Peche ancestry when he wrote, "In Normandy most of the ancestresses of the Peche were French, Flemish and Breton and in Norway were both Norse and Danish. The Danish ancestresses were of the royal folk kingdoms of which the senior line became kings of all Denmark.

If all this is true, then we are not only of noble heritage (in England), but also of royal heritage (in Scandinavia).

I hope this leaves each of us with a lot of dignity. No matter how despised and defeated we feel we may be, we need to lift our heads high knowing we are somebody special.

If any Peach, Peachy, or Peachey descendant is not excited about this rich ancestry, they have no right or opportunity to be sailing on the H.M.S. Peachey when it sets sail on August 15.

If you haven't responded to any of my newsletters yet, please email me letting me know you want to be aboard the cruise of a lifetime.

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