[1] This implies that Ansfried the elder is brother to Bishop Robert, who was himself described as a relative to the Ottonians, the royal family at the time.
Not yet described as a count, a first mention might be in 928, in a grant made by Gilbert, Duke of Lotharingia, involving the church of Saint Servatius in Maastricht.
[4] In 950, a count Ansfried "fidelis noster" (our faithful) was mentioned by Louis "d'Outremer", king of West Francia ("France").
Because this count was apparently a vassal of the western king, there are doubts about whether it could be Ansfried, whose homeland of Lotharingia was by this time back under control of the eastern kingdom ("Germany").
Soon after, in a charter of 7 Oct 950, a place called Cassallum, probably Kessel on the left bank of the Maas between Roermond and Venlo, is described as being "in pago Masalant in comitatu Ruodolfi" (in the country of Maasland, in the county of Rudolf), and "cuidam vassallo nostro Ansfrid" (a certain vassal of ours Ansfried) was the beneficiary of the rights to have a market and mint there.
Van Winter on the other hand has argued that this record is incorrectly dated, and that these events in Gembloux must have been in the 980s after young Ansfried returned from Italy.
Vanderkindere (1902), proposed that Ansfried was in fact the same person as Ehrenfrid, son of Ricfrid, and that an otherwise unattested sister of this Ehrenfried married the above-mentioned Lambert, the so-called Count of Louvain.
Jongbloed (2009), proposed that Ansfried the elder married a daughter of Count Immo, based mainly on the story of Widukind mentioned above.