I had heard all my life that my dad's family had been traced back to William the Conqueror. Basically figured the ancestor was one of the soldiers. A cousin who was really into genealogy found a distant relative who had done further research and it turns out it was actually William himself that was the ancestor and then that person had traced the lineage all the way back thru all the European royalty to Charlemaine. Very interesting! There's even a castle in England that apparently is family related. Would love to go there sometime and see it.