Back in July I wrote about the things that remain elusive in my family tree and the fanciful idea of finding a Royal connection. I sit here now with a piece of paper in front of me on which I have written the descent of William the Conqueror from Charlemagne because I’ve found that elusive piece of information thanks to a message I received from someone who happened to read my blog.
I know that pretty much everyone with British ancestry is more than likely related to Royalty somewhere along the line and that what I’ve found is anything but exclusive or special or even that interesting to most people, but it means something to me. You see, while we all may be related to the great and the good, and the not so good, those of us who are able to follow the trail back are a lot rarer.
I always assumed that if I was really lucky and found a connection it would be via a shared ancestor. I never imagined that I’d follow the trail back and find names like Lancaster and Plantagenet. You see, as it turns out, I’m descended from Henry III and Eleanor of Provence by two of their sons, Edward I (Edward Longshanks – Hammer of the Scots) and Edmund Crouchback. This, of course, means that I can trace my lineage back to William the Conqueror and Charlemagne and then further still.
The amount of “blue” blood flowing in my veins, if indeed there’s any at all, because after all who knows what went on behind closed doors, is infinitesimal. But I can draw up my family tree and see one branch of it stretching back nearly 1500 years and to me that is quite incredible. I can’t quite comprehend it and some would argue that the reason I can’t is because it’s meaningless. But instead of thinking of it in terms of years I look at William the Conqueror and I realise there are only thirty generations between us. Thirty! That seems a very small number to get back almost 1000 years. And after that it’s only another eleven to get back to Charlemagne.
I’m well aware that thirty generations back I should have over a billion ancestors but of course that would be more people than there were on the entire planet at that time so there’ll be a lot of common ancestors across the various branches of my family tree. I may even have other lines of descent from William the Conqueror. Who knows?
It seems funny to me that the very first family tree I ever drew was a Royal one. When I was a teenager there was a drama series on the television called Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna. It told the story of Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed to be the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. I was of an age, fifteen, where I was easily caught up in romance and fanciful ideas. I fell in love with the story and desperately wanted it to be true. I set about finding out how Anna Anderson would be related to Queen Elizabeth II had she turned out to be Anastasia. The relationship between the current British Royal family and the Russian Tsar is, of course, well documented, but I had no knowledge of it so I sat in the local library armed with the Dictionary of National Biography and various other books and wrote it all out. Imagine what my fifteen-year old self would have done with the knowledge that, not only was she distantly related to the entire Royal Family, but she was descended from Kings and Emperors, not to mention Vikings!
In many ways I’m still that fifteen-year old girl with fanciful ideas and endless daydreams. I must remember that just occasionally fanciful ideas are not so fanciful after all.
I went to the theatre on Tuesday evening. A long anticipated trip to Stratford-upon-Avon to see David Tennant play Richard II at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. It was sublime, extraordinary, wonderful, moving, and every other superlative you might care to suggest. I’m a huge fan of David Tennant which is why I bought a ticket; however, seeing it just confirmed to me my love of Shakespeare. The fact that it happened to be Tennant playing the lead was simply a fabulous bonus.
I mention this here because as the main characters were revealed upon the stage I was struck that I can now go to the theatre and see plays about people that I can legitimately add to my family tree. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, banished forever by Richard II, is a distant great-uncle. He was brother to a direct ancestor of mine a mere twenty generations back. Fanciful ideas …
Huh. I can go back to 1650 and that’s way more than I need already, but more power to you. I’ve studied the Middle Ages and it seems like a radically foreign period of time to me. Could definitely make your series of novels longer and more interesting … !
LikeLike
I think writing anything about anything that far back is definitely beyond me. And, given who my ancestors are, it’s been done before so largely unnecessary! 🙂
LikeLike
Brilliant! Well done you!
LikeLike
Thanks!
LikeLike
From your American cousin, I find this so interesting! Of course, don’t you know I’m enamored with all things British!
LikeLike
Sadly it’s the wrong side of the family but if I find anything like this on your side you’ll be the first to know! 🙂
LikeLike
Glad you’ve been able to discover the piece of information that opened things up for you. It’s so interesting to learn about your past.
LikeLike
Thanks. I’m fascinated and obsessed with all of it. While I’ve always hoped for a Royal connection it isn’t the most interesting thing I’ve found. I think the more interesting stories are those relating to ancestors much closer to home. But this is something to boast about, at least for a little while 😉
LikeLike
What a fantastic piece of research, Kathryn! Right or wrong side of the blankets, who cares? The very lines of descent make it all the more fascinating. After all, look who they eventually found to provide DNA for Richard III? Not someone with ‘Royal’ blood, that’s for sure.
My father’s research on our line took us back to William Wallace and I was tremendously content with that. And of course, it’s well documented in a history text released this year and a fiction anthology due out at Christmas that to date on my mum’s side, we’ve come from a English convict. I just need the time to take that back further.
Please keep us informed with what you turn up!
LikeLike
I can’t take all the credit for the research. I’m lucky in that once I got past the earliest parish registers (which were mostly online or had been transcribed) for this particular branch of my tree my ancestors were mostly peers of the realm or knights and have therefore had their ancestors documented by the likes of Burke’s and Cokayne. Once you hit Royalty or at least ancestors of Royalty you’re home and dry if you’re looking at the right side of the blanket. I would have found the connection eventually, but a nudge in the right direction from a kindly blog reader helped me find it more quickly than I might have done otherwise. Although I don’t condone using it as a reliable source, I initially found the answers simply by trawling through Wikipedia!
Sadly DNA wouldn’t help me much as it’s not an all female line. My dad, however, will no doubt enjoy telling Leicester Cathedral that his daughter is descended from a Plantagenet although I’m not planning on joining the Alliance anytime soon (or ever)! 😉
I wouldn’t mind tracing my line back to William Wallace! Very nice bit of history there! And I have convicts in my family tree too – not ancestors but cousins or great-uncles – in Australia and Tasmania.
LikeLike
Did you see the recent Country House Rescue where the home owner was a direct descendent of William Wallace?
LikeLike
Well, then, we’re related. I go back to William the Conqueror as well on both sides — maternal and paternal, and on both the right and wrong sides of the sheets if you go back far enough — I found my dad’s side’s connection several years back, which put my mom’s nose out of joint as hers was the posh side of the family; but this last year she found that her family goes back as well, so now she’s happy too. 😉 Greetings, coz!
LikeLike
Oooh greetings! It’s all so fascinating! I’ve only found the link on my mum’s side. I’m not surprised by it given who some of her ancestors were and the circles in which they moved. I’m yet to find anyone even slightly illustrious on my dad’s side which of course makes it harder to trace. The more money and more influence, the more surviving records.
LikeLike
Good job on finding out more about your family. I really think it does take other people sometimes to help make those connections. I love to find out more about my family and my husbands, but it will be hard. My maiden name is way to common and I know I am not related to them all, that is the part of me that is English, Irish and Scottish. Then there is both Mr. 70 and my Polish side of the families, very hard. His oldest cousin and 2 of his uncles went to Poland in September and had the trip of a lifetime. They flew into Berlin and shortly after getting the rental car got it stolen with the family papers in there, no one spoke German, but one uncle did speak French. They did get to Poland but was unable to find anything out about the family.
LikeLike
Tracing family trees can be terribly frustrating. While I may be able to go this far back in one branch, there are plenty more where I’ve met a brick wall. I have German ancestry which I’m probably always going to draw a blank on especially as I don’t speak the language and it’s a complicated story too. There are countless others with too common names or simply not enough information. Going all the way to Poland, having such a difficult time of it, and then drawing a blank must have been really disappointing.
LikeLike
I know you say it isn’t that unusual to be related to royalty but i am quite impressed. I have only got back 400 years for my family but they were all peasants*! However, i did get excited when i heard Melvyn Bragg’s lecture on the death of Elizabeth I and the procession that went with James down what is now the A1 because my peasants farmed the very land the A1 is now on. I have visions of them leaning on their pitchforks and chewing a bit of straw as they watched the pageant go by!
*All peasants – some of them convicts, debtors and a bigamist.
LikeLike
Ah well being a peasant, convict, debtor or bigamist doesn’t exclude anyone from Royal descent. I have a convict in my family tree who shares all these common Royal ancestors. He probably explains why the money never came down my side of the tree! 😉 The trouble with the lower classes is that once you reach a certain point they’re often too hard to trace – no wills, no prominence in the local community, etc. Of course the lower classes are very often the most interesting! I also have a bigamist (possibly several) in my tree – when I found him I was very over-excited, possibly a bit more than is proper in such circumstances! Lol!
LikeLike
[…] KathrynD traces her family back to William the Conqueror. […]
LikeLike
The great thing about being related to a famous family is that it is much more likely to be documented and relatively easily available – and other people have already done all the hard work! Great find!
LikeLike
Thanks. Just people who have plenty of money helps as they tended to leave a much more obvious paper trail, but as you say, it is really useful to find families connected to the peerage etc as the information available tends to be well researched and easily accessible.
LikeLike
I’ve been “digging up bones” for several years now, looking for interesting ancestors along the way. I recently discovered that my maternal grandmother’s ancestors were in Jamestown, Virginia in 1602.
LikeLike
Wow. That’s a very interesting piece of history there. I just found out my 1st cousin 5 times removed tried to assassinate Queen Victoria. So much history, so much to find out, what a rich tapestry our family trees are!
LikeLike