Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-08-10
A Purchased Pedigree.

The papers are making cOfSldefaDle lun
of Mr.. william Waldorf Astor, who has
Just abjured his American citizenship and
became a subject of Queen Victoria. Mr..
Aston, who lives in London, where titles
and pedgrees are of more account than in
this country, seems to have felt the need
of a taller genealogical tree than he pos
sessed. There are dealers in that sort
of goods in Europe who will furnish any
III ing you want in that line Tell them
what kind of ancestors you would like
and how many Of them, and they will get
them for you. Your pedigree will look
we'll on pager, will be accompa MED ny
armorial bearings. crests and coats of
arms, got up in gold and colors, il you
wish, and will be as good as a genuine
gerealogy, provided you keep it to your
self, or show it only to people who know
no more about such matters than you do
Mr.. Aston seems to have applied to some
such pedigree monger. and to have OBJ
tanned very fine pedigree, tracing the
Astors back to a lineal connection with
the D'Astorss, a noble French family
which started from one Pedro Astorga Of
CASTLE. who was "A famous crusader kill
ed a the taking Of Jerusalem in 100; and
having no end of counts and barons IN the
family line, down to a Jacques DAstorg
Who, as the pedigree says, fed from
France to Germany with the other HUI
guenots after the revocation of the Edict
OF Nantes, and was the grandfather of a
man who dropped the D. and & from the
name and became a plain Aston, of Wall
| dori in Germany The latter was Will
! liam Waldorf's unqucstioned ancestor
Mr.. Astor probably paid well for this
pedigree and must have accepted it as a
genuine article, for he allowed it to sc
printed in full in the English Pail Mall
Magazine which he owns.
Being thus spread before the public, it
attracted the attention of a Mr. Lathrop
wilmington, who Is described as a distin-
guished geneaogist, of high authority n
all such matters This gentleman took the
pains to overhaul the Astor pedigree ard
to compare it with the family records in
Germany and with the family records OF
the D'Astorgs. The results of his investi-
cations are thus summarized:
where in Germany. where the pVosentors
of John Jacob Aston lived, going to claim
or even allude to the ennobed French an
cestry set out in the propounded pedigree
They show. moreover, that the descend
ants of the French dAstorgs, Comics d
Auberede did not any of them flee TO Ger
many on the revocat ton of the Edict OF
Nantes, but on the contrary, remained IN
France. The offices and honors they cn-
joyed under the King of France after the
revocation of the Edict Of Nantes remaiI
recorded. There Is the more serious mat
ter that it is clearly shown that the date
of marriage of Jacques d Astors in France
which official records show to nave bee
1862, ls falsitcd in the propounded table e
1852, the latter date making connected
chain between the French and German
record possible while the former authentic
date destroys the claim.
This makes bad work Of the Aston pod
gree, and unless Mr. Aston can overthrow
, the genealogst's statoment (Which does
not seem likely, he is left in bad shape
logically and senealogicaly, and will be
come an object of merriment instead o
. awe and veneration. lie will have to glv'
up his noble ancestry and be content t'
descend from a reputable German butcher
and though ne Will still have plenty o
, money, he will have a little less even o
that, than IL he had not purchased a pedi
eyce His fate in this respect should b
a warning to some American tuft-huntor
and buyers of hand picked pedigrees, o
foreign make.