§ The lineageThree lines, three kinds of certainty
Public history is stated plainly. Each claim about our family carries its tier. Names and generations come from the family's MyHeritage tree. Where that tree is silent, we say so and leave the gap.
Alexander Hamilton
Descent from Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler through their son John Church Hamilton. Researched in depth and documented in the heritage database.
The Mayflower
Descent from Elder William Brewster and from Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster of Plymouth Colony. Researched at length and documented in the heritage database.
The royal chain
From the Normans back through the Carolingians to the Lombard kings, reviewed match by match to its deepest generation. One link · historian consensus · proof scarce
The Mayflower
In November 1620 the Mayflower anchored off Cape Cod. Before anyone went ashore, forty-one men signed the Mayflower Compact. Two of them were William Brewster, the ruling elder of the Pilgrim church, and Isaac Allerton, a London tailor, born in Suffolk, who later became Plymouth's assistant governor.
Brewster's daughter Fear followed them in 1623 on the Anne and married Allerton. Their son Isaac Allerton Jr. was born at Plymouth in 1627 and later settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The tree carries this line on through colonial Virginia towards the Hamiltons of West Virginia.
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was born on Nevis in the British West Indies, the son of Rachel Faucette and James A. Hamilton, the fourth son of the Laird of Grange in Ayrshire. He arrived in New York as a teenager and became Washington's aide-de-camp. He wrote most of The Federalist and served as the first Secretary of the Treasury. He died in 1804 after his duel with Aaron Burr.
In 1780 he married Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of General Philip Schuyler and Catherine Van Rensselaer. She outlived him by fifty years and co-founded New York's first private orphanage. Their son John Church Hamilton (1792–1882) married Maria Eliza van den Heuvel. He became his father's biographer and edited The Federalist in 1869.
The Hamiltons of Grange
Hamilton's father came from the Hamiltons of Grange, a cadet branch of the great Scottish house of Hamilton. The arms Alexander Hamilton used on his bookplate are those of this house: gules, a lion rampant argent between three cinquefoils ermine, with an oak tree for a crest.
The tree also carries the Schuylers, Van Rensselaers, Van Cortlandts and Livingstons of Albany, the Dutch patroon families of colonial New York, on Eliza's side.
The Crown of the Lombards
The Lombards came down from the north into Italy in 568 under Alboin, son of King Audoin and Rodelinda. They held Italy from their capital at Pavia for two centuries until Charlemagne took the crown in 774. According to tradition, their kings were crowned with the Iron Crown now kept at Monza.
The deepest generations of the tree hold the kings of the Lombards: Lethuc, Godeoc, Claffo, Wacho and Audoin. After them come Godepert (r. 661–662) and Aistulf (r. 749–756), along with the dukes of Friuli, among them Pemmo and his wife Ratperga. The earliest of these kings are known only from the seventh-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum, a king-list that is partly legendary.
Kings of Italy and the Franks
After the Lombards the line passes into the Carolingian house. Pepin, son of Charlemagne, was King of Italy from 781 to 810 and died at Milan. Charles the Bald (823–877) was King of West Francia and later Emperor. His daughter Judith was twice Queen of Wessex before she became Countess of Flanders. One generation below them the tree places Rollo, the Norse chief who founded Normandy.
In the generations after Normandy, the tree holds Anglo-Norman Russells, Hacketts and Theobalds, then the Brewsters of Scrooby, the family of the Mayflower's William Brewster.
A royal bastard, mid-chain
The family has checked this descent match by match. It has one known weak point: a single link in the middle of the chain runs through a king's natural-born child. Historians generally agree on that descent, but little documentary proof survives, as is usual for illegitimate royal children of the period.
We have not marked which link it is. The exported tree records who each person is, but not whether a birth was legitimate, and we would rather leave the link unnamed than guess.
The crowns of Spain
The family account traces this line to the old kings and queens of Spain as well as Lombardy. The tree export we worked from (2,529 people, taken 25 September 2026) has no Castilian, Leonese or Aragonese royals in this line. The royal names it does hold are Lombard, Carolingian and Norman.
The Spanish branch may be recorded elsewhere in the heritage database. Until it appears in the chain we hold, we show the gap here. The arms of Castile and León appear on this page only as period decoration.
Sources
- Family tree: MyHeritage “Alvelda/Albelda Family Tree”, people-list export of 25 Sep 2026 (2,529 people). Primary source for every family name and generation on this page. Fuller documentation of the Hamilton and Mayflower lines is held in the heritage database.
- Arms: “Coat of Arms of Alexander Hamilton” (blazon after W. E. Baillie, “Book-Plate of Alexander Hamilton”, Journal of the Ex Libris Society VIII, 1898). Rendering by Glasshouse with elements by Sodacan, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Arms of Hamilton of Grange, rendering by JMvanDijk, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Alexander Hamilton, portrait by John Trumbull, 1806 (public domain)
- Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, portrait by Ralph Earl, c. 1787 (public domain)
- John Church Hamilton, portrait by Henry Inman (public domain)
- Maria Eliza van den Heuvel Hamilton, portrait by George A. Baker, 1850 (public domain)
- Philip Schuyler, engraving by T. Kelly after John Trumbull (Library of Congress, public domain)
- “The Mayflower Compact, 1620”, J. L. G. Ferris. A 1899 imagining, not a record (public domain)
- Charles the Bald enthroned, Vivian Bible, Tours, c. 845, BnF Lat. 1 (public domain)
- Iron Crown of Lombardy, heraldic rendering by Katepanomegas, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Arms of the Crown of Castile, 1230–1284, rendering by Heralder, CC BY-SA 3.0. Used as decoration only
- John Church Hamilton: biography and family (Wikipedia, citing Reynolds 1914 and Van Rensselaer 1949)
- Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, and the Origo Gentis Langobardorum: the Lombard king-list
- Hero paintings: NBP2 (Nano Banana Pro 2) evocations made for this gallery. They are not historical documents.
On certainty
- Documented · Hamilton line
- Established by the family's own research, with fuller documentation in the heritage database.
- Documented · Mayflower line
- Established by the family's own research, with fuller documentation in the heritage database.
- Traced · personally reviewed
- Traced in the tree, with every match personally reviewed back to its deepest generation.
- Historian consensus · proof scarce
- Used for exactly one link: a royal descent through a natural-born child. Historians agree on it, but little documentary proof survives.
- Family account · not in our export
- Something the family account names that the chain we hold does not yet contain. We show the gap and do not fill it.
- Public history
- Well-established general history, such as who Hamilton was or when the Lombards ruled Italy.
The recordThe Hamilton house, generation by generation
HistoryThe Founder's family
Alexander Hamilton was born on Nevis to Rachel Faucette and James A. Hamilton, a younger son of the Hamiltons of Grange in Ayrshire. He married Elizabeth Schuyler in 1780. Of their eight children, John Church Hamilton (1792–1882) is the one Sara's line descends from.
- Generation 9Alexander Hamilton of Grange Tree-recordedLaird of the Grange estate. His son James went to the West Indies.
- Generation 8James A. Hamilton × Rachel Faucette Tree-recorded
- Generation 7Alexander Hamilton × Elizabeth “Eliza” Schuyler DocumentedFounding Father, first Secretary of the Treasury. Eliza was the daughter of General Philip Schuyler.
- Generation 6John Church Hamilton × Maria Elisabeth van den Heuvel DocumentedTheir son, and his father's biographer.
- Generations 5 → 1The Hamilton families of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia Tree-recordedThese generations are recorded in the tree down to Sara Anne Hamilton. We don't list them individually here because the most recent ones are living people.
- PresentSara Anne Hamilton
Family photographsSara’s parents
Sara Anne Hamilton’s father was James William Hamilton and her mother was Jane Ellen Queen.
About these photographs
Both are family photographs. Under each one you can switch between three versions: a colour version, a black-and-white restoration, and the original photograph as it came to us. Click any version to see it full size.
How the restorations were made. With AI: OpenAI’s gpt-image-2 model, run through Leonardo, with the original photograph as the reference. The aim was to repair the damage only: scratches, dust, creases, the torn corner, silvering and fading. Faces, expressions, hair, clothing and pose were checked against the originals at full size, and versions that changed a face were thrown out. James’s chipped front tooth is in the original photograph, and it has been kept.
About the colour. Hair and eye colour were supplied by the family: James had very dark brown hair and blue eyes, and Jane had medium blond hair and blue eyes. Skin and clothing colours are an AI estimate.
DetailBack to the old kings
- LegendaryLethuc, King of the Lombards Tradition / consensusKnown from the Origo gentis Langobardorum. A figure of legend.
- 6th centuryWacho and Audoin, Kings of the Lombards Tradition / consensus
- 7th centuryGodepert, King of the Lombards Tree-recorded
- 8th centuryAistulf, Duke of Friuli, King of the Lombards Tree-recorded
- c.800Pepin, King of Italy (son of Charlemagne) Tree-recorded
- 9th centuryCharles the Bald, Emperor Tree-recorded
- 10th centuryRollo, first ruler of Normandy Tree-recorded
How far to trust this
The family traced this chain and reviewed it personally. The names above are the landmarks the tree records. Descents from Charlemagne's family through medieval nobility are widely published, but in any one family they depend on a few hard-to-prove links. This chain has one: a royal-bastard link that rests on historian consensus, with scarce proof. The earliest Lombard kings are known from legend and chronicle, not records.
Traced · reviewed One link: consensus Earliest kings: legend
DetailThe Mayflower, 1620
Elder William Brewster, the Pilgrims' religious leader, sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 and signed the Compact. His daughter Fear Brewster married Isaac Allerton, another signer. Their son, Isaac Allerton Jr., was born in Plymouth in 1627. Sara's family descends from this Brewster–Allerton marriage. The connecting generations are recorded in the tree.
Documented (family research)
ArmsThe Hamilton shield
Borne by Alexander Hamilton These are the arms Alexander Hamilton used. Under Scottish heraldic law arms belong to an individual and pass to one heir at a time, so no descendant is automatically entitled to bear them.