Appendix D: Kecks and Royalty

My family has several lines that can be traced back to British Royalty through the Plantagenet kings. It may seem exciting to have royal blood flowing through ones veins, but in actuality it is quite unremarkable, because probably 1/8th of all humans on the planet at the moment are descended from the Plantagenets. This is because: (1) Plantagenet royal descendants spread, by marriage, throughout all of Europe, (2) the very high birthrate of Medieval nobles, (3) the tendency of the younger and illegitimate children of the nobles to marry into the landed gentry, and (4) European colonialism.

I will trace the descent backwards, from son/daughter to father/mother, without any details or sources -- these lines are well-documented. I will also end at the Plantagenet connection, from there one can easily find connections to most of the royal houses of Europe in any history book. The descent does continue, however, through the early kings of France all the way back to Charlemagne and the Merovingian kings, before the evidence begins to peter out.

I will begin my list with my father and work backwards. The critical connection between the Warrens of Charles County, MD and the Warrens of Pointon, England is generally accepted and the Pointon Warren's genealogy is well-documented. Furthermore, The ancestors of the Molyneux family have also been well-researched and can trace its lines back to the ruling families of England.

Ransom Clay Keck

Henry Clay Keck

Salinda Francis Tucker

Elizabeth Stansell

Martha Jane Guthrey

Mary Warren Musgrove

Harrison Musgrove

Mary Warren

Barton Warren

Thomas Warren

Humphrey Warren

Sir Edward Warren

John Warren

Edward Warren

Margaret Molyneux

Richard Molyneux

Lord William Molyneux

Anna Dutton

Anne Touchet

Eleanor Holland

Constance of York

Edmund of Langley (Duke of York)

Edward Plantagenet (King Edward III)

etc.

This, of course, is not the only line connecting the Poynton Warrens with royalty, they usually married quite well. The Warren line itself goes back to William de Warennes, Count of Varennes and 1st Earl of Surrey, who was a staunch ally of William the Conqueror. However, the Poynton Warrens were a cadet line, descending through William's 2nd son Reynold; the Earldom descended through William's oldest son -- also named William.

The Arkansas Keck's also had another connection to royalty: John D. Keck, Andrew's brother and 4th son of Frederick Conrad Keck married Anna Owsley. John's sister Sarah also married an Owsley: Matthew Owsley, who was Anna's brother. The Owsley family can trace its genealogy back to the Poyntz family which included numerous knights, Barons, and Lords, and then to the La Zouche family, which is connected to King Henry I and the Dukes of Bretagne.

The connection of the Keck family with the royal families of Britain and Europe runs through many maternal and cadet lines, making it completely insignificant except as a humorous little tidbit of genealogical trivia, which is the reason I have included it here.