8 Responses for "Ways to find a royal connection in a family tree?"

1. jessicacreaser December 29th, 2008 at 11:32 pm 1

   ooh it will be a lot of work, but im sure it will be rewarding to look at your family history. speak to your grandparents and find out as much information as you possibly can about great grandparents, cousins etc and work from there. there's alot of websites that help you do this kind of thins now… lie friends reunited has a geneology section… try looking on there. or if you really got stuck you can always hire someone to find out the information for you.
   good luck xxx
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2. Ruth B December 30th, 2008 at 12:06 am 2

   I don't know, but I wish I did know, I am trying to find the connection to a royal family of Germany and Austria.
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3. Lamb December 30th, 2008 at 12:27 am 3

   It's best to find out the family names of the royals i.e. the Queen Mother's full name was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Bowes-Lyon was her fathers name, her mothers name was Cavendish-Bentinck. These names can then be split into 4 separate names and potentail connections to your lineage. If you have an ancestor with one of these names you can then research the connection fully to see whether it is genuine. However, this would be very time consuming as there are many branches of royalty, all with ancestry which could go back generations.

   There is a show currently on TV called 'So you think you're Royal' (made by Shine Unlimited.) where if you have a genuine reason for believing you are connected to Royalty (i.e. your surname is Lyon and your family came from the same area as the Queen Mothers) then they will bring professionals in to research this for you. If the paper research is inconclusive then they sometimes conduct blood tests to proove whether it is possible.

   There is also a search engine at http://www.royal-family-tree.co.uk which can start you off on your search.
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4. HSK's mama December 30th, 2008 at 12:43 am 4

   Trace back your family tree one generation at a time and see if you connect. Be sure to document any and all sources. That is the only way to do it with accuracy. You can not just pick a person arbitrarily in history (royal or not) and know that you are connected without doing the proper research to get there.
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5. Lieberman December 30th, 2008 at 1:30 am 5

   If you're American, the best way would be to establish a line to one of the so-called "gateway" ancestors, early (17th cen. generally) settlers with proven royal descents. Gary Boyd Roberts published the definitive book on these gateways; it should be available in most major libraries and certainly via ILL.
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   Amateur Geneaologist with 10+ years experience

6. Shirley T December 30th, 2008 at 1:42 am 6

   You start with your parents and work back. Don't start with a royal family and try to work down to your family tree. Document, Document, Document. Actually it is good to have 3 different documentation to back up any fact.

   Part of the problem with online family trees there is poor documentation, and a lot of people are copying what someone else has submitted. There are too many errors in those trees. Don't trust a company that is involved in peddling coats of arms to do your family tree. I undestand they like to give people what they want. Do your own research, but if you hire someone to do your research, don't tell them you are tryinig to find out if you have a royal connection, as many all to often are going to find some way to make a link you to royalty.

   Being a descendant of royalty is not all that unusual especially when you start going way back.
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7. Libby one and only. December 30th, 2008 at 1:50 am 7

   lol- live hopes babe- thats it live in hopes!!!
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8. 69Cherokee December 30th, 2008 at 2:21 am 8

   Definitely start from the present and work back. Work through each branch on both sides, because where you find brick walls in some lines, you will find doorways in others. The population several hundreds of years ago was much smaller. Therefore, as I have with my family tree, you may find more than one link back to a particular individual. I find I actually descend from some of the same people through several different lines in my tree. I am a descendant of King Edward III of England, through about 4 or 5 of his kids on different lines of my tree. From there, it all pretty much goes back to Royalty of every country that had a royal family. They intermarried so much between countries as a way to keep peace between the countries and as a way to keep the blood lines "pure" and royal and not get "common" blood mixed up in it. As someone else stated, it is not uncommon to be descended from royalty. Back in time, when we knew little of the science of medicine and diseases, when people were poor and had very little, it was the royal families who could afford the care and food to survive, while common people often died. Also, it was the common people who fought all the wars, while the kings and queens stayed in their castles, so that also increased the mortality rate of common people, while the royalty was able to survive. I would not be surprised to learn that everyone can probably sooner or later trace their heritage back to some royal line. I can't imagine that over a period of thousands of years, and considering that most of that time the earth's population was rather small, I just don't know how it could be that there is anyone who does not descend from a royal line somewhere. Especially, since I also believe that if you stretch the tree branches far enough, you would probably find that we are all cousins in some way or another, even if very, very distantly.
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