It's been up on this site for months and not one comment or query as to what that symbol, the one with a white field and a Dark Ages cross, means.
Here's a hint. It has to do with my German lineage, 1275, the Crusades, and the now Swedish island of Gottland. I won't begin to get into the really dark side, my Scots ancestors.
C'mon, you've gotta guess.
Actually I have wondered about this & thought it was a cross. Have done a search for it, in the past, & again now but I am finding nothing as I don't quite know what to type in for the search, even though I've tried different combinations of words.
ReplyDeletePlease enlighten at some point? :)
Found it!
ReplyDelete"Comprised of four Tau Crosses, this form of cross was assigned to the knights of the Teutonic (Germanic) Order, founded by Emperor Henry VI as a hospital order in 1191, similar to the Templars and Hospitallers. By 1198, they became a religious military order of crusaders, first fighting in the Holy Land and later in Prussia and Lithuania. The order secured high status for themselves, but this ebbed in the 15th century. It was finally broken up by Napoleon in 1809 who gave the order's main assets to his allies of the Confederation of the Rhine."
penlan....The Tau Cross is where our present day Red Cross comes from. A. Morris
ReplyDeleteOh, thanks for that info A. Morris.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1275, my great, great .....grandfather was a member of the Teutonic Order. He left and moved to northern England. Apparently he was a wealthy fellow because there's a record of him having paid the King eleven hundred shillings in a levy to fund the King's wars in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteThe fellow who did the searching is a retired US Colonel. For my branch of the family he has a DNA map that goes back into Germany.
I suspect that, before long, this sort of geneological tracing is going to be almost commonplace. It is interesting to see it all laid out - an intact history, generation by generation, back to the 11th century.
And, as for the cross, it evolved into the modern day Iron Cross that the German military still uses on its ships, vehicles and aircraft.