Recently I went to a newsagency and spotted a beautifully produced glossy genealogical magazine I had not seen before. It was Issue 4 of Discover your Ancestors .
I bought it because on the front page was ‘Exclusive: Daniel Craig’s French forebear’. There were four pages dedicated to Daniel Craig’s ancestors. The first page was a whole page photograph of Daniel Craig. On the third page was a family tree (rather hard to read).
In that tree, quite prominently was a portrait of Daniel Chamier 1564-1621 with ‘was a key figure in the drafting of the Edict of Nantes’ in the caption.
Surely in the text the link should be established? Mentioned was Judith Chamier ‘the daughter of another Daniel Chamier’. In the tree was a dotted line from Daniel Chamier to the father of Judith Chamier. By omitting those generations they missed out on a very interesting link for Daniel Craig.
I looked around on the internet and found a site about the Chamier family. This established the link between the two Daniel Chamiers, but also produced the wives of those missing generations. Judith Chamier’s grandfather, yet another Daniel Chamier, was the son of Madeleine Tronchin. Sadly this website, dedicated only to the Chamiers, gave as her father Jacques Tronchin, but no mother. However, that they lived in Geneva piqued my interest as I already had Tronchins in Geneva. Were they related? How to find out? A very knowledgeable friend in Belgium provided the answer and, yes, it was the same family! [See Leo’s chart above.]
I do appreciate your magazine, and your article did put me on to the trail of this link, making Daniel Craig a cousin of Prince William. Hope it is of interest to you.
Leo van de Pas, Canberra, Australia genealogics.org
1549-1609
1582-1657
1599-1651
1618-16867
1628-1708
1646-1705
1660-1698
1690-1755
1696-1741
1735-1797
1720-1801
1774-1849
-
1803-1874
1582-1657
1828-1897
1817-1847
1868-1906
1845-1893
1892-1975
1881-1966
1924-1992
b1913
1961-1997
b1943
1982-
1968-
The editor replies: Thanks for filling in the gaps for us, Leo! Apologies that we didn’t have room to show the family tree in more detail. You’ve certainly added to Daniel Craig’s (albeit distant) celebrated family connections! James Bond fans will meanwhile be pleased to know that Craig’s next outing as Bond, Spectre, will be released this month, on 26 October.
Do send your letters to us, via [email protected]
Issue 4 of the print edition of Discover Your Ancestors is still available in newsagents around the world, or you can order it directly from discoveryourancestors.co.uk