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Greetings to my distant Riedell / Riddle / Riddell/ Ridel relatives,

Our family has been recorded back through great periods of history such as the Revolutionary War, The Hundred Years War, and the Crusades. Approximately 60 variations of our last name have been found and documented in "History of the ancient Ryedales" By Gideon Tibbetts Ridlon from 860 to 1884. Throughout history the name has changed in spelling as it has been pronounced and in its basic form seems to have been derived from a "dale" or "dell" where rye was cultivated, and properly written would be Ryedale or Ryedell.

Our history appears to have begun in the northern Scandinavian countries with Norsemen coming across the sea and landing in the Channel Islands. They would come to be known later as Normans and the area they settled became known as Normandy. These Northmen had a thirst for adventure and relocated to nearly every country on the planet. With their locates, they became members of the English Parliament, the American Congress and highly regarded members of their society. Three Bishops and over 100 Clergy have been identified and many more in highly ranked military positions around the world.

I am attempting to pickup the research of our family from where Gideon Tibbets Ridlon left off and take it forward to present day. This is quite a massive undertaking and with your help or that of another knowledgeable member of your family, I think we can update our history and help one another find missing relatives from years gone by. I have created this website to aid in the gathering of information and you are more than welcome to use this to provide your information.

My personal case is one of adoption. I was born to a woman who I thought was a Riedell but upon further research, found that she was adopted by a Riedell family. My paper trails have come to an end and have even hired an attorney to open a sealed birth record, which failed. I have since turned to DNA research to unravel this family mystery and have found that I share DNA with another branch of this Riedell family. The connection is there and now I must find the link as to how my mother ended up in another branch of the family. After watching 2 generations of Borchers research their family ancestry, which spans back to 700 A.D. and the Emperor, Charlemagne of Europe, I have a desire to give something to my Riedell heritage of similar value. While I may never know my biological birth family personally, I can at least learn their story of how they arrived at this place in time.

I urge any person who is searching for answers and missing family to conduct a DNA test to help them uncover missing family members and answers to known and unknown adoptions. Every test taken helps at least one adoptee (Like myself) that is searching for their family.

Best regards,


Aleta Ann (Riedell) Gerard



DNA TESTING SPECIAL

Check for price specials around the holidays, normally a test runs about $100. USD

There are several labs that I recommend:
www.FamilytreeDNA.com
www.23andMe.com
www.Ancestry.com
For adoptees, I recommend taking a test with EACH lab to maximize your DNA matches.

Use the following link to transmit your ancestry information to our family database.

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