British Genealogy and Heraldry Expert Appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire

Mr. Thomas Woodcock is one of six Lancastrians named to assist Lord Shuttleworth in representing Her Majesty The Queen in Lancashire. Originally these appointments were made to assist the Lord Lieutenant in organizing the militia. Nowadays, the position is mainly ceremonial and considered to be an honor recognizing that person's contribution to the county and its life.

Officially a member of the Royal Household, Mr. Woodcock, who is also a qualified barrister, is responsible for heraldic matters north of the River Trent and in Northern Ireland. His medieval title is Norroy, (meaning king of the north) and Ulster King of Arms, and he and Garter King of Arms, the senior officer at the College of Arms, have to approve every coat of arms in his area.

Mr. Woodcock is currently working on editing the third of a four-volume Dictionary of British Arms which, when completed, will contain about 114,000 examples of British coats of arms before 1530.

Comments

[Jamie Odom]

Dear Sir,
My name is Jamie Odom and I have a geneology question for you. Before I go into detail on my question let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a new Luetinent in the U.S. Army and am presently going to a computer officer school (Signal School at Fort Gordon Georgia) I have always been interested in my family history and ran into another officer here that knows how to look up family geneolgy. I asked him if he could help me with my family history and he was more than happy to do it. Recently I have been shocked to find out that I'm related to Queen Elizabeth. Not only am I related to her but 3 other people in my class are also related to her as well. We are all a little surprised. This has kind of been bugging me. Is this normal that all of us are related to her? I remeber when George Bush was first sworn in as presdient. They said he was related to Queen Elizabeth. I thought at the time what a coincidence. Now I'm not sure how much of a coincidence it is. So my question to you is why are so many people related to her. Is my class unique in some way? My other idea was that maybe there were royals over here back in 1630 to the 1700's that make this possible. My reasoning is that whoever can trace their family tree back to that period is probably related to her but what person or persons would this be? I hope all of this is making sense. Thanks for your time.
Sincerly, Jamie Odom