One of my Geni chums asked me to take a look this area of the tree.
We have Godegisl, king of the Vandals and his brother Corsicus, king of the Herulii, each married to a woman named Flora. Godegisl has sons Gunseric and Genseric (or Gaiseric). Corsicus has a son Fredebaldus.
Her question was whether it is possible, maybe even likely, that the two Floras are the same woman, married to two brothers.
My first thought was that it's much more likely Flora is a late invention, but when I started digging it turned out to be more complicated than that.
Many of these old lines are fake. If not entirely then at least fake in the details. And it's a red flag that we're seeing an ancestry for Godegisl, who was the first historically attested king of the Vandals in Spain. His ancestry is unknown, or at least not attested by contemporary sources.
So, I checked MedLands to get my bearings. It has Godegisl, wife Flora, and sons Gunderic and Genseric, but no brother Corsicus and no Fredebaldus. That suggests Flora is not really fake (although I'm still skeptical).
http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/VANDALS,%20SUEVI,%20VISIGOTHS.htm#_...
Where did Corsicus and Fredebaldus come from, then? I decided to check Fab Pedigree. This is arguably the worst genealogy site on the Internet. It has just about every fake line anyone has ever invented. It doesn't cite sources. And, it makes no distinction between reality and fantasy. But there is one thing it does very well. When it reports a fake line it uses the standard version, without all the errors that the people who copy it have made.
So, using Fab Pedigree I was able to determine that the standard version really is that Godegisl and Corsicus were brothers, who each married a woman named Flora but apparently not the same Flora.
Godigiselus: http://fabpedigree.com/s036/f695675.htm
Wife Frilla (Elisa; Flora): http://fabpedigree.com/s061/f347837.htm
Corsicus: http://fabpedigree.com/s012/f280069.htm
Wife Flora (no link)
My third step was to look at a few hundred Internet trees. The goal here was to see what other variations of this line exist. Leaving aside copying errors, is there a pattern to the variations? If so, that suggests there is some other place people are getting information. I found that the most common variation is combining Godegisl and Corsicus into one person, married to Flora, with sons Gunderic, Genseric, and Fredebaldus. There are enough of these variant trees that there must be some other Internet source, but I haven't found it. The interesting thing here is that Corsicus really could be corrupt form of Godegisl, It would be an easy mistake to make, separating one man into two brothers both with the same wife.
My fourth and final step, now that all the survey work was done, was to look for real sources. Most of these old fakes appear out of nowhere in the 1500s and 1600s, then they get tarted up in the 1700s and 1800s, then demolished by academics in the 1900s. Since I knew there are no early sources for Godegisl with this level of detail about his family, I knew I'd probably find something very late.
What I found was Chronica der Lande zu Holsten by Johann Peterson (1557, 1599). This might not be the first time this line appeared in print, but it probably is and I haven't found anything earlier.
1531: https://books.google.com/books?id=bxxPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PT62&lpg=...
1599: https://books.google.com/books?id=Q6teAAAAcAAJ&pg=PT79&dq=f...
The line given here is different from the line on Geni. There is no Godegisl but there is a Corsicus. He is the son of Radagasus (called Radagaisus on Geni). No wife named for Corsicus. (I still think Flora was a later invention.) Corsicus is the father of Fredebaldus, who married Thermiroma (as on Geni), and it is Fredebaldus (not Godegisl) who is the father of Gundericus. Then, Gundericus is the father of Gensericus.
Since we know from earlier and better sources that Genseric was brother (not son) of Gunderic, the Holsten Chronica got at least one thing wrong. But, since Godegisl does not appear anywhere it seems that he is represented in this version by Corsicus. In other words, Corsicus probably really is a corrupt reading for Godegisl. All these old chroniclers copied earlier chronicles then added their own information. The Holstein Chronica was probably drawing on earlier chronicles, and one of those must have looked like the name was Corsicus rather than Godegisl.
I'm going to give this a few days to sink in, but I think the best thing to do would be to merge Godegisl and Corsicus. Leave wife Flora as not fictitious for now. And maybe (or maybe not) amend the line on Geni so that Gunderic and Genseric are sons not brothers of Fredebaldus.
Comments?
Godegisl, King of the Vandals & Flora, Queen of the Vandals (Fictitious Person)
Corsicus, King of the Herulii & Flora (Fictitious Person)
