Most of the entries of the Polyptyque mentioned in an earlier post have, as noted, the names of parents and children, and that is it. However, a few of the entries give us more information, allowing us to reconstruct family trees of three generations, or spreading out to siblings of the parents. Sadly, these are not ones that give us much information in terms of patterns of names, but simply because they are cool, we have reconstructed three of them here:
Family tree 1
(not named)
______|_____
| |
Hermenalda Odila
|____________________________________
| | | |
Hildeardis Willermus Hermenalda Hildeburgis
|
|
Gunterius
Hermenalda (sen.), Odila, Hildeardis, and Gunterius all live together in one household, while Willermus lives with his other two sisters, and a further crop of daughters (unnamed, and it is not clear which sibling(s) are the parents). It’s also ambiguous whether Odila is Hermenalda (sen.)’s sister or Hildeardis’s.
Family tree 2
(not named)
___________|___________
| |
Waldrea Laurentius
________|___________ |
| | | (unnamed sons)
Guntardus Hugo Richildis
This family tree is unambiguous from the information, but what is interesting here (and is also true of the previous one) is that it is the woman who is the first-named person of the household. When in the later Middle Ages it often feels like very woman is “uxor ejus” some man, it’s always nice to see a few men who are important because of their mothers, sisters, or wives!
Family tree 3
Alburgis
____|____
| |
Alburgis Eva
|
Josemberga
