Does it make me good at archery if most of my ancestors were all royal bowman?

6 Responses to Does it make me good at archery if most of my ancestors were all royal bowman?

1. Dave says:

   December 1, 2002 at 9:21 pm

   No, your ancestors didn’t have video games and other things that made them lazy and sit around all day on their kesters. So if you want to be like your ancestors, get off your own kester and do something about it.
2. Joseph says:

   December 4, 2002 at 1:53 pm

   Good looks are inherited, so is hair color, eye color, height, etc. Good and accurate bowmanship is not inherited. It is developed through professional lessons and practice.
3. Joyce B says:

   December 4, 2002 at 3:26 pm

   You must have researched your family really far back. Soldiers carrying bow and arrows went out of style when the opposing soldiers started carry firearms, somewhere around 1600. You would have a few hundred ancestors at that time. How did you find that your ancestors were archers?
4. Ted Pack says:

   December 7, 2002 at 5:12 pm

   Do you mean surname “Bowman”? If so, did they inter-marry? Most people have 16 surnames at the 2nd great grandparent level, and at least 30 and the 3rd GGP. If all of your ancestors married first cousins, you could have “mostly” Bowmen, but it would be a very improbable tree.

   Or, did you really trace your ancestry back to before the armies of Europe switched from longbow to gunpowder, and find their occupation?

   Note that exactly half of your ancestors were women. They were not bow women.

   Finally, acquired characteristics are not inherited. Any able-bodied person can become a competent archer if he/she has proper equipment and practices diligently.
5. jan51601 says:

   December 9, 2002 at 11:49 pm

   Not necessarily. My brother had never touched a bow and arrow till he was in Cub Scouts. He now teaches hunter safety with them. We are about as far away from “royal archers” as you can get. Could be you were an archer in a past life (if you believe in that sort of thing).
   Personally, I often wonder if I was once a Japanese samurai warrior or other soldier in a past life who died by drowning or in a fire for several reasons: (1) I love ancient Japanese history, or any military history; (2) I would rather see a war movie or read a war novel than what most women would do; & (3) my ungodly and mostly unexplained fears of fire and drowning.
6. archerdude says:

   December 12, 2002 at 5:39 am

   No, it doesn’t. If such things were true, I would be an excellent woodsman; I know for a fact that many of my ancestors were some of the best woodsmen the world has ever seen — Ojibwe and other “Woodland” American Indians.

   I almost have to carry a map to find my way back to the house when I go out into the brush on the “back forty”, and I still need a “field guide” book to identify which plants are safe to eat.

   Skill has to be learned, it is not something that is inherited. Oh, and a “royal bowman” is just a better-than-most military archer with a fancy title, it doesn’t really mean anything. There was a time when ***everyone*** in England was required to spend time practicing archery, even on Sundays, just in case there was a war.