Who's your gateway?

Lady Godiva, Lady Godiva she used to be my 36th Grandmother and a very dear friends 40th now the line has changed, she is my 20th great grandfather's wife's 7th great grandmother. I was on the phone with my Mother working on my tree and was chatting with my friend out GENi and she said her Grandfather got her family tree for her birthday and that Lady Godiva was her 40th. My Mother said you can't prove that, and should not say it. (Mom did research by going to the county seats and looking at records, still does) I did trace the tree and it looks pretty good to me.

http://www.geni.com/path/William-Owen-Bill-Irwin+is+related+to+Lady...

I didn't reach all the way to her either, the nearest was on my fathers side, even tried my mothers line, but it was close ther as well.
The only Gore I found was Al Gore thrue his mother, still just a question, what do you mean by "gateway"?

http://www.geni.com/path/Ulf-Martinsson+is+related+to+Lady-Godiva?f...

http://www.geni.com/path/Lady-Godiva+is+related+to+Marianne-Martins...

Just found the answer
"A gateway ancestor is an ancestor who gives descendants a treaceable path back to a new ancestral population"

Yes, I had that and more definition discussion on the Project page

http://www.geni.com/projects/Gateway-profiles/23377

"Gateway ancestor" has a traditional use, but Nat Taylor is defining it more broadly.

I found Reverend William Duthy, JP in the Plantagenet Role and worked from there. He Married Emma Robinson a Baronet's daughter.

Did you have any idea of this, Sharon? That's one of my amazements - of how much we can find out by working with connections.

I's addicting!
Emma Robinson
http://www.geni.com/path/Ulf-Martinsson+is+related+to+Emma-Robinson...

Sharyn,
http://www.geni.com/path/Ulf-Martinsson+is+related+to+Sharyn-Procto...

No, we were always told "Duthy" was Scottish, I added these as a separate unattached tree, and found (Pretty much confirmed now) that we were related, and connected to the tree via the Robinsons, then added the Savary's which connected to several other Barons vis marriage etc. FUN :)

Catherine Savary Cade This was the Whitworth connection to us, which I marked with a "key" as I suppose she is a "gateway".

Pleased to meet you @Ulf-Martinsson

I'm not sure if I understand what "gateway" means. Being of French-Canadian descent, I'm related to boatloads of other French-Canadians and notables such as Jim Carrey, Angelina Jolie, Avril Lavigne, Jack Kerouac, Céline Dion, Madonna, etc. However, when we talk about getting into the French Normans and the English royal families, that comes from my 15th great-grandmother Alice Boucher Halsam. She makes me related to English people and celebs such as Kevin Bacon and Kiefer Sutherland.

Everyone you've mentioned is a potential gateway for you.

My example was that targeting my tree to see if I could relate myself to Gore Vidal made his profile my (personal) gateway into "another" group - so he's one of my gateways. For a direct Gore descendant, the (personal) gateway to another family, of a different background, could be someone entirely different.

A traditional gateway for your tree would be finding an ancestor in French Canada who has a known pedigree back to France.

You are a gateway to other populations for someone FC who connects to your tree. (You're not a gateway for yourself.)

Is that making more sense?

Ulf Ingvar Gote Martinsson is my 20th cousin twice removed - can you tell me who the "gateway" is? I am a wee bit confused.

i need some help connecting Susan Collins, U.S. Senator and George Carlin to gateways any one?

Is the idea to FIND the gateways, rather than identify them in hindsight ?

From the project front page here:

http://www.geni.com/projects/Gateway-profiles/23377

about this project

Collaborators, please add profiles representing a door from one group to another in your Geni tree. Immigrants, "notables," adventurers ... Let's get beyond the usual suspects and find more people who connect us all together. Profiles must be set to "public.".

What is a gateway profile?

From

(continued ...)

From http://nltaylor.net/sketchbook/archives/11

What is a gateway ancestor?

Further back in time, as new ‘clumps’ of similar ancestors appear, each new clump is connected to the rest through a single ancestor whom we can call a ‘gateway’. So in broad terms, a gateway ancestor is any individual with known or traceable ancestry in a specific group who intermarries into a target group, and therefore adds a new set of ancestors to his or her descendants in the target group. For example, every immigrant from one country to another is a potential gateway, if his or her descendants can then trace ancestry in the first country. Gateways can also occur within a single geographic area, when someone moves from one distinct social group into another, across relatively distinct religious, economic or racial barriers.

======

The goal of this project is to add profiles YOU have identified as gateways in YOUR tree.

Yes, you may not have known that until "hindsight."

For example - I could connect myself to a living celebrity, but it won't introduce a "new" group to my tree; so that profile would not be a gateway for me.

But Gore Vidal "was.". By connecting to him I connected my Southern USA tree to a New York based tree (the Auchincloss family). And to some well documented, trustable pedigrees! (very good find if I say so myself ...)

Private to identify a common ancestor, use "share your path" and look for the oldest common ancestor and then go up one step.

So to find your gateway from your tree to cousin Ulf's tree, I used the pushpin tool:

http://www.geni.com/path/Colleen-Day+is+related+to+Ulf-Martinsson?f...

Ulf Ingvar Göte Martinsson is Colleen Andrea Day (Roy)'s 20th cousin twice removed!

Your common ancestor looks to be:

Magnus Bengtsson Minnesköld (Folkungaätten)

When I looked at my relationship to Ulf, I noticed my 24th great grand father (and Ulf's 2nd cousin x many many) emigrated from Flanders to Scotland.

He's an emigrant from one area to another, with many descendants.

Gateway!

James Fleming of Flanders Flanders added to the project http://www.geni.com/projects/Gateway-profiles/23377

So I guess I have to back pedal on my comment to Sharyn. It's identifying new gateways also.

:) This one links to direct John Gaunt and I thought of you, his middle name.
James Haughton Langston

I just added this one because we merged Erica :)
Sir Paul Davys, Secretary of State

Yes Erica, It's right, so.
Colleen Andrea Day is Magnus Bengtsson Minnesköld's 22nd great granddaughter!
http://www.geni.com/path/Magnus-Minnesk%C3%B6ld+is+related+to+Colle...

Magnus Bengtsson Minnesköld is my 19th great grandfather.
http://www.geni.com/path/Ulf-Martinsson+is+related+to+Magnus-Minnes...

And You are also my cousin on my mothers line, my mother, your grandmother.
Marianne Linnéa Iréne Martinsson is Andrea Husby's 23rd cousin once removed!
http://www.geni.com/path/Andrea-Husby+is+related+to+Marianne-Martin...

Erika, I can't thank you enough for acquainting me with the pushpin! It really opened up a lot of data. I discovered that 10 people I had identified as my gateways were, in fact, cousins related through many lines. Now, I just automatically run any notable through my list.
Here is one: Agnes Harris Spencer Edwards

Ooh - sweet! The "path between" has taught me so much history; from little pockets I knew nothing about to broad sweeps.

Can you add the gateway you've found to the project?

I think we many of us have common gateways but I think there might be individual ones in our own trees that represent an opening for someone else.

To many to name here some John Kennedy,Ron Howard. Kirk Douglass ,Kirk Russell ,.Marilyn Monroe ,Queen Elizabeth Princes Diane ,Steven King Lucille Ball, Kevin Bacon and I can go on and on. I love looking at my family each one has a story weather famous or not. I love it cause I found relative in common with some of my friends , And my parents are related to some of the same families, Cousins who married into same families making me a double cousin. I meet wonderfil cousin on line thru Geni!

That double cousin stuff is kind of freaky. I thought it only happened in, you know, West Virginia. :):)

My gateway was my 4th ggm. Margaretha Christina Svinhufvud.

I don't think the trend of this discussion is fulfilling the real idea of gateway. As Rene' Jette' used the term with reference to Catherine Baillon, she is a gateway (I myself would picture it as an hourglass on a diagram) between millions of North Americans of Quebecois descent and a broad range of nobility and royalty all over Western Europe. It is her rich descent from many kings that connects all of us with all of them. Discussing contemporaries such as movie stars as "gateways" misses the point entirely. Their names are not far enough up the tree to be gateways.

Jerome, I used to think that. It really bothered me to see "gateway" used in a non-traditional sense. I'm used to thinking of a gateway ancestor as an American immigrant whose ancestry opens up lines into European nobility and royalty.

But as I've watched the discussion evolve I've changed my mind. I'm seeing an enthusiasm for other kinds of gateways. That has to be a good thing. It seems like the world has been waiting for this kind of broadening. We Cranky Old Guys can stick to our definition but still watch the fun ;)