Mind the gap...

I thought I'd finally found that elusive royalty link... but it all depended on a rather spurious connection in someone's family tree that I could find no evidence for.

There are a few branches of the family that have names that are promising. When I search for information on these names, I come up with information about how so-and-so came over with William the Conqueror or that so-and-so was part of a highly influential family in the 1300s. The problem is, I have no way to connect my brick walls in the 18th and 19th centuries back to the Middle Ages. I have no idea if my Lovett family in Buckinghamshire is descended from Richard de Louet of Normandy. I have no idea if my Stafford family in Northumberland is connected to the 13th-century de Staffords. Stupid gap!