So, here is my Dad's side of the family which i favor mostly. I have found it so interesting to find out that we are Celtic Royalty!
Now you may be asking yourself...Well how do i find out how my family came over here and blah, blah, blah. 1 word: RECORDS. Yes, Records are the key to going back as far as i have been back in my family. We had a Yancey Family Book that went back to the 4 Brothers that came over here from Wales. So here is my Family History that i am very proud of! One Day i hope to go to Wales and see where my ancestor's walked and lived!
Yancey Family History
They Yancey name cannot be traced back to the home land mainly because when the 4 Yancey brothers came over with Sir William Berkley more than likely the name got changed. More than likely the Yancey’s are really Nanney. There are many simililaries between the Yancey story about the brothers and the Nanney’s.
The Nanney Family comes from Wales. From Cadwgan, second son of the found of the tribe, descendant of Nanney of Yorke. Founder was Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, Prince of Powys from whom the third Royal tribe of Wales was descended.
Maesypandy in the parish of Talyllyn now reduced to a farmstead, was for many ages the seat of a family of note.
Descendant of Carodec Fraichfras (Who was one of the knights of the round table) His daughter Heiress of the Hughes family married Lewis Nanney . Grandson by a younger son of Hugh Nanney of Nannau Sherriff of Merioneth 1634.
Sir William Berkeley who lived in Cariganshire, Wales, and was a descendant of a Welsh Family was evidently in touch with the Nanney brothers of Merionethshire, the adjacent county, and they came with him to Virginia. Sir William Berkley was a connection of the Nanneys through his ancestor Bleddyn Cynfyn of the third Royal Tribe of Wales. (This matches the Yanceys story of the brothers coming over with Sir William Berkeley)
One line of the Nanneys descended from Caradoc Fraichfras, a Knight of the Mystical Round Table
“Vron Goch, just north of Bala, Merioneth, was the home of the Nanney brothers, who emigrated America in or about 1640.” There were many Nanney clans in this area. It is in the valley of the river Dee.
It is said that four of five of the Nanney brothers immigrated to America about 1640 and did not leave their new address. Gradually becoming known, perhaps at first as Yanney or Nancey, and finally Yancey, for people were not particular as to spelling names in those days. The attributes of pure Welsh blood are dark vivacious, quick witted and benevolent, full of family pride and affection.
And I also found out that Charles Yancey was a Major and was addressed as the Duke of Buckingham County. Charles Yancey commanded the first regiment, Virginia militia in the war or 1812. He represented Buckingham in the House of Delegates in 1796.
And apparently we did have and sell slaves.
It also looks like we married into royalty also. Somewhere along the line it looks like we married into the King James I, King of England Stuart Line! The Kings first wife or her mother was named Bartlett.
If we can find some Bartlett history we could be related somehow to Robert Bruce, King of Scotland. And also through Robert Bruce, wife Margaret to Alfred the Great and back to the Saxon Earls.
While most people in this country do well if they know the names of a couple of their great-grandparents, we of the Nanney name have an unusual distinction: it is a name known among genealogists as one of the oldest traceable family lines in Britain. This is due to the unique name, and to the fact that we clearly identify as one of the families of the ancient Celtic Royalty.
In 1066 the Norman French crossed the English Channel and conquered Britain. Their influence dominated for a short time in Wales, but as it faded there emerged a small kingdom in north central Wales called Powys. It was this kingdom that our family ruled. The rulers of such kingdoms were indeed kings, but were known as "princes" and "lords". One of the rulers sometime during the 1100's was named Bleddyn (pronounced Blethin). One of his sons - probably a younger one without inheritance - was referred to as "Cadwgan ap Bledyn, Prince of Powys". Cadwgan struck out into the wild mountains near the coast northwest of Powys and founded his own estate near the present-day town of Dolgellau. He named the estate Nannau. The structure he built was often called the "stateliest house in all north Wales.
In 1536 the English finally, after trying for over a thousand years, succeeded in taking us over. They had nightmares trying to keep their tax books straight because the Welsh had no family names. We would identify ourselves as being the son of so-and-so, who was the son of so-and-so,who was . . . etc. In other words, I would identify myself as Wade ap Reginald ap Perminter ap Amous ap Thomas ap Shadrach. So in the 1600's the English required us to have family names. We took the name of the estate. Somehow, the -au ending and the -ey became interchangeable, so we now bear the name "Nanney".
(Bleddyn Ap Cynfyn died in 1075 and was a Prince of the Welsh Kingdoms of Gwynedd and of Powys. He was the son of Princess Angharad ferch Maredudd , of the Dinefwr dynasty of Deheubarth, with her 2nd husband Cynfyn ap Gwerstan, a Powys Lord. When Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was killed by his own men after being defeated by the Saxon Harold Godwinson in 1063, his realm was divided among several Welsh Princes. Bleddyn and his brother Rhiwallon ap cynfyn, his half brother, succeeded to his lands but first as vassals and allies of the Saxon Kind of England, Edward the Confessor, and then submitted to Harold and from his received Gwynedd and Powys. He was killed in 1075 by Rhys ab Owain of Deheubarth and the nobility of Ystrad Tywi in South Wales, a killing which caused much shock throughout Wales. Bleddyn is said to have been a benevolent ruler: The most lovable and the most merciful of all kings…he was civil to his relatives, generous to the poor, merciful to pilgrims and orphans and widows and a defender of the weak…and the mildest and most kindest of kings. Also he did injury to none, save when insulted…openhanded to all, terrible in war, but in peace beloved.”
He was the founder of a dynasty which lasted until the end of the 13th century.)
