Genealogy often uncovers connections and links that give you shivers or déjà vu or are just amusing. It’s kind of a personal “Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon”.
I am now researching my husband’s family lines – very different from mine. I've decided to split into two projects – his Dad’s lines first. I've gone back over 20 generations on one line!
Yesterday I found Thomas Digges in his direct line. He happens to have a Wikipedia entry:
He was a student of John Dee (pictured above) – who has recently been featured in several historical fiction novels – including one I’m reading right now by Karen Harper called The Fyre Mirror! Dee was an adviser on many things to Queen Elizabeth I, and often reported to her what he found in other parts of the world – including political things. When sending secret messages to her he used a symbol of two circles with a bar over them, extending down the right side, signifying for her eyes only. Dee came to be known among the close royal advisers as… 007!
And, of course, eventually that code-name was used by author Ian Fleming for his famous spy character, James Bond, classically played by Sean Connery, for whom my own Dad has an extraordinary resemblance!
I am now researching my husband’s family lines – very different from mine. I've decided to split into two projects – his Dad’s lines first. I've gone back over 20 generations on one line!
Yesterday I found Thomas Digges in his direct line. He happens to have a Wikipedia entry:
- Thomas Digges (c.1546 – 24 August 1595) was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to expound the Copernican system in English but discarded the notion of a fixed shell of immoveable stars to postulate infinitely many stars at varying distances;[1] he was also first to postulate the "dark night sky paradox".[2]
He was a student of John Dee (pictured above) – who has recently been featured in several historical fiction novels – including one I’m reading right now by Karen Harper called The Fyre Mirror! Dee was an adviser on many things to Queen Elizabeth I, and often reported to her what he found in other parts of the world – including political things. When sending secret messages to her he used a symbol of two circles with a bar over them, extending down the right side, signifying for her eyes only. Dee came to be known among the close royal advisers as… 007!
And, of course, eventually that code-name was used by author Ian Fleming for his famous spy character, James Bond, classically played by Sean Connery, for whom my own Dad has an extraordinary resemblance!
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