I have found a relative, Anna Hely Spencer Knight, who was the aunt (via her sister Margaret) of Sir William Carey, who was married to Anne Boleyn's sister Mary. Then via her other sister, Catherine, she was the aunt of Henry Percy. The guy Anne Boleyn was engaged to when Henry VIII got interested in her.
This is the relative whose line goes back to Eleanor of Acquitaine, et al., but I didn't look more closely at her and her relatives descendents until now.
I got sucked down the rabbit hole last night until 2 am when I realized the William Neff b. 1819 I had next in line wasn't actually right, date-wise. So now I'm annoyed. Lol.
I have run into that one before.
What's also puzzling is when you run into 1st cousins marrying. I found that out in my tree....it's confusing when branches of the tree are moving one way and then suddenly they merge together.
My mom has our family line traced back forever and a day. Holla, Mayflower Society. Samuel Fuller is the passenger we're descended from.
Holla! Mine are Alden, Samson and ... someone else I'm blanking on. She was just a couple of towns up from Plymouth, and went to a lot of Mayflower Society perambulations.
An aunt researched my mother's side back to when they arrived from Europe (now Nancy France, but surname is clearly German). I have an ancestor who apparantly worked for Alexander Hamilton as a secretary (not sure if that is worth really bragging about lol).
My dad's aunt traced his side of the family far back. We are related to Ben Franklin via one of his illegitimate kid (I think) and William the Conqueror