While Romney’s documented ancestry does not quite reach the heights of the family legend, which claimed that they are descendants of the fourth-century dragon slayer, St. George (the patron saint of England), it is still an impressive one, with some of the most celebrated thinkers (maternal great-grandfather, Parley Parker Pratt, was one of the chief literary defenders of Mormonism), famed fighters (Carl Heinrich, a member of the Prussian army, and later, Utah’s militia) and natural leaders (Miles Romney, who founded and administered the Mormon sanctuary in Mexico in the 19th century) of post-Independence America.
The family can trace their lineage to modern England, Scotland and Germany. Miles Park Romney, Mitt’s great-great grandfather (paternal), hails from Lancashire, England, while on the maternal side, Archibald Newell Hill was a resident of Renfrew, Scotland. His great-great grandfather, the legendary Prussian soldier, Carl Heinrich, was a native of Holstein, Germany.
Romney's family tree is rife with polygamists on the paternal side, though there is no indication of polygamy on the maternal side of his family. According to a research by The Salt Lake Tribune, Romney's ancestry harbors six polygamous men with forty-one wives. Romney, however, is a confirmed monogamist and polygamy has been absent in his family background for more than two generations.
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