Someone wrote a book about my Grandmother’s paternal family line in the 1960s. The surname is Colvin. It goes back to the 1300s. It ends with my mom’s generation. It was kind of weird seeing her name in a book written by a complete stranger. My uncle sure got the big head when he found out that we are royalty!
My uncle sure got the big head when he found out that we are royalty!
If you remember how things worked in the 14th Century, if you survived to child bearing age, you were probably related to royalty somehow.
My dad did his genology and he was thrilled to see that we were related to some Danish king who came to Scotland.
I laughed out loud.
I told him, “Your ancestor was raped by a Viking. Congratulations.”
Each generation further back you have twice as many ancestors (with possible duplications--if two people married who were third cousins they would have some ancestors in common). The royal ancestor might well be the illegitimate son or daughter of a king...but the English monarchy traces its lineage back to William the Conqueror, also known as William the Bastard.