DO YOU have a knight in shining armour among your ancestors? Or a drop of Flemish blood flowing through your veins?

The Heritage Llangwm project, working to uncover Llangwm’s Flemish roots, wants to hear from you if you’ve traced your family back to the 1700s in the area around the village.

If you have, you may be related to Sir David de la Roche, the gentleman whose effigy is thought to lie in the village’s St Jerome’s church.

Or you could be a descendant of Sir David’s ancestors, invaders from Flanders who came to Britain with William the Conqueror in 1066.

The project, supported by sources including the Heritage Lottery Fund, plans to test the DNA of volunteers to see if it matches samples held by geneticists in Flanders.

Three likely families have been identified and the family histories of several others are being checked.

Elizabeth Rawlings, Heritage Llangwm’s research officer, said families with certain surnames - including Brock, Cousins, Roach and Stevens - are thought to have connections with Flanders.

“We’re looking for families who can trace their male ancestors back 200 years or more to the area within five miles of Llangwm. If the research looks promising, they’ll be asked to provide a saliva sample which will be tested with all the usual safeguards concerning privacy,” she explained.

“Our colleagues in Antwerp have samples from people born there and hopefully will be able to match them with our volunteers. It would be really exciting to be able to identify people whose lineage goes back to the 1100s.”

If you can trace your male ancestors back 200 years or more to the Llangwm area, get in touch via email on heritagellangwm@yahoo.co.uk or leave a message on 07597 152903.