They could not trace their own genealogy back for two hundred years.

There was a great gap of missing generations which had never been filled in.

It was not even known how the document had come into their possession.

Simon's two sons and their descendants had vanished into unknown graves, leaving no trace.

But the family clung fast to their belief that they were the lineal descendants of the Turralds of Buckinghamshire.
It had remained for Robert Turold to prove it.