Italian Princess Info

[CheerfulPie]

Okay, so I've been told that somewhere in my ancestry, I'm related to an Italian princess who was disowned for running away with her Swiss guard. Now, I have no reason to doubt that this is true because the family member who told me this is usually pretty credible. I have never found any information on this, however. I'd like to know her name and some sort of history on the story. My family must've gotten the information SOMEWHERE! I was wondering if anybody knew anything about this or might know where I can find out about it.

Thanks!

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Okay...lemme rephrase that. I'm not saying that I think that it's 100% true and there's no room for error. I know I don't have any helpful info, and that really hinders my case. Also, as has been said, it may not necessarily be as simple as a little search. If it really was a big enough deal for her to get disowned, it was probably kept pretty hush-hush throughout history. Plus, the reason I tend to believe the story is at least somewhat true, is because I come from a family that is very interested in tracing back its roots. I highly doubt that they'd take some little story and found all our research on it. Besides if it's true, I'm VERY far removed. Not only am I Italian, but Swiss, German, Russian, French, Spanish, Filipino, Chinese, Hawaiian, and Irish. I just want to know if anyone has heard similar stories or may know where I can get helpful information.

[Moneyman2010mn]

It's great that you have such an interesting story having to do with your ancestry. I'm no expert with Italian Genealogy (I've asked quite a few questions about my family too) but I can say that even if the story was told by a credible person that doesn't mean it is 100% true. They might not have changed the story but since it was most likely told by mouth, it was altered a bit (most likely some of the finer details). I'm not saying you shouldn't believe the story but check out and see if there are some other versions and compare them. That's very cool though, and I do hope the story is true for you. Any idea what her last name was? Try asking one of your relatives and see what they say if you haven't aready. How long ago was this? Any information you can provide could help us help you.

-Moneyman

[JamesBianco]

I agree with Moneyman, no matter how credible the person is who told the story, it is very possibly (and probably) not completely accurate. A Princess running away with her swiss guard does sound rather dubious, if such a thing would have occurred it would be easily proven with the simplest of searches. Unfortunately fantastic family folklore is more often an extreme exaggeration than true to life.

If you have any information for us to look into this, please post it, who knows?

Jim Bianco

[wldspirit]

I approach stories like this within my own family as interesting.....but speculative. The proof is in the pudding as they say....brings to mind the story of the Indian Princess......every family has one of them to......
wldspirit

[Graffeo]

The way I look at family stories that cannot be proved is that they are "legendary." And that's really neat and interesting because legends are very fascinating and mysterious. So even if you are never able to find her and prove it happened, make sure you record the story anyway and just say in the record that it is not proved to be true or false. What IS true is that it is YOUR family's legendary story. The STORY is part of your heritage even if the persons in it are not.

[Graffeo]

Speaking of the Swiss Guards here is a link to a very interesting article on the history of the Swiss Guards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard

In the past they did guard the House of Savoy and other royal courts. Today I think they guard only the Vatican.

[CheerfulPie]

The way I look at family stories that cannot be proved is that they are "legendary." And that's really neat and interesting because legends are very fascinating and mysterious. So even if you are never able to find her and prove it happened, make sure you record the story anyway and just say in the record that it is not proved to be true or false. What IS true is that it is YOUR family's legendary story. The STORY is part of your heritage even if the persons in it are not.

Great advice! It's all a bit of fun, really, isn't it?

[CheerfulPie]

Speaking of the Swiss Guards here is a link to a very interesting article on the history of the Swiss Guards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard

In the past they did guard the House of Savoy and other royal courts. Today I think they guard only the Vatican.

Thank you very much!

[Graffeo]

Speaking of the Swiss Guards here is a link to a very interesting article on the history of the Swiss Guards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard

In the past they did guard the House of Savoy and other royal courts. Today I think they guard only the Vatican.

Thank you very much!

You're welcome. I agree about it being a bit of fun. Tracing a family does not have to be just a dry documentation of facts otherwise it's just a list of names, "George Smith married Liza Jones, Liza's parents were Joe and Mary Jones. Joe's parents were Jake and Suzie Smith." Yawn.....zzzzzzzzzz.....yawn.

What I am going to do if I am able to get far enough back that all I really have are lists of names and towns is to make some kind of story out of it to show they are people who lived in time and in history. If I can't find out any more about the people, I can learn how they might have lived by researching the their town and what life was like in it while they lived there and what was going on in the world when they were alive. What where the fashions then? What was the music that was popular? Who was president at the time? It would be a lot of work to do this for every generation but I will briefly weave it in with some of the generations . That will make it more interesting for me to do and for other people to read and I will learn things about history too.

[CheerfulPie]

Sounds like that will make for some great stories to share with your family in the future. I love that. I can't wait to learn so many things!