Yorke Lee Eastwood, my first cousin on my father’s side of the family, his niece, died in her upper nineties.

Yorke was the family genealogist, and provided much family information to we Houstons, et al. Yorke’s mother, also Yorke, was by maiden name a Houston, and an older sister of my father. Their mother, my grandmother, was a Fitzgerald, who married Walter Bartow Houston, a dentist, who lived in Monroe, North Carolina. He was known as “Dr. Bart.”

His brother, David Franklin Houston — my great uncle — was a college president who became a member of President Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet, serving first as Secretary of Agriculture, then Secretary of the Treasury.

Now, acknowledging that this isn’t the stuff of anticipatory interest on your part, I shall press on, nevertheless. Should you elect to stick with me, then I thank you. Those who choose not to move on, please know that I understand.

In addition to my Cousin Yorke Lee Eastwood, I had another first cousin named Mary Yorke Neal Wyatt, and our older daughter was christened Sarah Yorke Houston.

So. Lee Eastwood, my second cousin, seems to have become our family genealogist, and recent research on her part about the Lees and the Houstons, has revealed, at the very least, some interesting information.

Hold on, now. I’m not going to go into that in detail here. My readers’ loyalty has its limits. That, I “get.”

Let me, then, just pass along a very small portion of that which Lee’s research yielded. I’ll do it in bits and pieces.

The York(e) family comes directly from the Plantagenet kings of England. The current Duke of York is Prince Andrew. They are also related to the Tudors.

The Fitzgeralds come from the kings of Scotland or Stuart family. Fitzgeralds are also related through marriage to the Tudors through the Royal Family of Wales.

The Houston family is related to General Sam Houston. Ancient Houstons were knighted for many generations. One source says Houstons are related to Queen Victoria, but I (Lee) have not been able to verify that.

Lee shared some info on her grandfather’s side (Bill Lee). She then said in May she would be taking a two-week trip to Scotland, Ireland and England. She noted that the Irish parliament building (Lienster House) in Dublin was once the home of one of our Fitzgerald (Earl of Kildare) relatives. The White House is modeled after that building.

She said our Houston relatives come from Houston, Scotland. “The Houston castle ruins were used to build the current city of Houston. How is that for sustainability?”

She notes that we are also related to Alfred House-son (which become Houston) who supposedly died in Jamestown in 1617. She said, “There is a great story about one Houston relative who came to America in 1730. This came from the Monroe newspaper. It said a large group led by a Houston boarded a ship with lots of money, furnishings, etc. They thought the crew might rob them so they imprisoned the crew and sailed to America. I have tried in vain to get a passenger list for the ship.”

Lee said, “I always heard from my mother that we were Scots-Irish … Evidently the Scotch, at least our family, became Presbyterians. The King of England wanted to dilute the Catholics in Ireland. So the crown gave lots of land in Northern Ireland to the Scots and English. Many Presbyterian Lowlanders moved to Ireland and were given lands. But the king decided that they had to give loyalty to the Church of England. If they did not, they could not marry or be in Parliament. So, our Scots-Irish moved to America because of religious persecution.”

And just what do I think all of this makes me, you may ask. I’ll tell you. Nothing more than a commoner.

And that, friends, is all you ever wanted to know about my genealogy. (Don’t say it, now!)

Let’s gratefully have ourselves a nice weekend.