The first Fortescue was Richard le Fort who defended William the Conqueror with his shield at the Battle of Hastings and became known as Richard Fort Escu (Strong Shield). He returned to Normandy to found the family of Fortescu whilst Adam, who also fought at the Battle of Hastings, stayed in England to establish the family of Fortescue. All English Fortescue’s are descended from him.
About www.fortescue.org
Featured
The site has been made and maintained by Don Edge (husband of Brenda Fortescue) using sources from people and places from all over the world. The site has been redesigned to include additional topics such as information and illustrations of Fortescue Family Manors, Heraldry, Associations with the name and more.
The content is mainly about the English and Australian families but it is planned to include the North American Fortescues and the French Branch of Fortescu.
Major Update 2012
September 2012
We migrated the entire website to WordPress, and completed another update of the database.
Minor Update 2010
October 2010
• 1911 Census information added
• Privacy of records improved
• Article on the First Fortescues added
Major Update 2010
April 2010
The website received a major update after a whopping 7 years! However during this time there had been plenty of work still going on updating, collecting and collating information. Plus some great connections developed with other interested people around the world who have helped contribute a great deal as well.
• Updated database : Our first major update since 2003!
• Now 4,500+ records in the main database
• Two databases. Now viewable by either All Descendants or Linked Descendants
• Portraits added to some Decendants in webpage layouts
• New separate Gallery of images added
Minor Update 2003
April 2003
The site front page was changed and another update made to the main database of records. We also started a mailing list.
First Website 2001
February 2001
The website was first published using static webpages with no searching ability.
In 2002 the website database was updated, and we added google search to the site.