Soccer, or football as most of the world calls it, is one of my favorite sports. I really got interested in soccer during my church mission in Mexico because Mexicans love soccer and I heard about it all the time (and even got to play street ball a few times!). The Barclays Premier League is the highest professional soccer league in England and is considered one of the best leagues in the world. I started regularly following the Premier League last year (for the 2014-2015 season) and now try to catch a few games playing each week when I can. I do not have any "skin" in the game, so I do not have a particular team for which I am a die hard fan. However, if I did have to choose a team that I like to watch and follow most, it would be Tottenham Hotspur (which probably makes me sound like a bandwagon fan because they are currently in second place in the league, and that wouldn't necessarily be an incorrect assessment).
Because I have been doing a lot of genealogy on my English side recently, I started wondering who my ancestors in England would have potentially rooted for in the Premier League if they were alive today. I started with my grandmother on my mother's side Margaret Cash (formerly Turner) who is my closest full English relative (and still alive by the way), and I looked back three generations of ancestors past her.
Using a vertical family tree produced from familysearch.org, I put the logos from the corresponding Premier League teams over the ancestor's name. I created two variations of the family tree. The first variation is based the Premier League team stadium that is closest in driving distance (as determined by Google Maps) to the place of birth of that ancestor. This represents the idea that you probably support the closest team to you. However, distance does not always represent team support. Therefore, the second variation is based on a map that shows the Premier League team with the highest percentage of Twitter supporters for a given town/area in England. The map is from the 2014-2015 season and can be found here: https://interactive.twitter.com/premierleague/#?mode=team&teamId=all.
Premier League Proximity Tree
The team names are all pretty obvious from the logos except for the top left one belonging to Edmund Summers Ralph Turner. He was born on the coast of Norfolk, and the closest Premier League team is Norwich City Football Club. Most of my ancestors on this tree were born in the east London area (Greenwich, Plumstead, Gravesend, etc.), which is why West Ham United, which is the "East London" team, is the most common team. Sarah Hills was born in the Sevenoaks region south of London, which is closer to Crystal Palace F.C. Mary French was born in Bermondsey, which is just a little north of the heart of London and very close to Arsenal.
Premier League Twitter Supporter Tree
It is not terribly surprising to see that Arsenal had the highest percentage of Twitter supporters for many of the birth places my ancestors even though most did not live close to Arsenal. Arsenal is one of the Premier League's most dominant teams and very popular in the London area if you look at the map in the link I posted above. However, it is surprising to see how many Liverpool supporters there are scattered throughout England, in particular in the London and surrounding area. I should note Manchester United was the Premier League team with the highest percentage of Twitter supporters for the area where Edmund Summers Ralph Turner was born (North Norlfolk) based on the 2014-2015 map. However, Norwich City FC was not in the Premier League during that season, so it is possible that they could have the highest percentage of supporters for this current season, but I do not have that information.
So, in conclusion, based on a majority of my ancestors, I should either be a fan of West Ham United, or a fan of Arsenal. I think I'll stick with Tottenham!
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