The millions of people who are descended from royalty (and don’t know it)

It may seem like an unlikely and unusual connection.

How could a modern comedian be related to a medieval monarch?

Recently, the famous English presenter and comedian, Josh Widdicombe, discovered that he was a descendant of Edward I, who reigned between 1272 and 1307, and died more than 700 years ago.

But Widdicombe is not alone.

In the BBC television series “Who do you think you are?” (Who do you think you are?), The actor Danny Dyer discovered that he was related to Eduardo III; Alexander Armstrong —Also an actor and comedian — was surprised to realize that he was a descendant of William the Conqueror; and the sportsman rower and announcer Matthew Pinsent learned that he was also related to Eduardo I.

What’s going on?

Are the genes of kings now generating an aristocracy of celebrities? Or are they simply remarkable and unusual coincidences, like a needle in a haystack?

According to genealogy experts, what this phenomenon represents is that if we look back in time, a surprisingly high number of people will find a real ancestor.

You can try it?

“It’s not that uncommon,” he says. Graham Holton, professor of a postgraduate course in genealogy at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

To prove his point, he says that he himself is a descendant of King Edward I.

But the academic affirms that the problem is “if you can really prove” this connection.

“Probably many people who are cannot prove (the relationship) with documentary evidence,” he says.

Using earlier models of the number of descendants across generations, Holton says that, as a general estimate, there could be two million people live related to Eduardo I.

Because the records of most common families are not that remote in time, most people don’t know.

But this means that on any street or bus there could be a person with an unintended relationship to this medieval monarch.

Holton, if anything, is not necessarily fascinated with his connection to royalty.

“It was very interesting (to find out). But being a Scotsman and Edward I a king known as the “Hammer of the Scots”, he was absolutely not on the moon, ”he says.

Millions related to Ricardo III

Turi King, professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, has investigated Richard III – King of England between 1483 and 1485 – and says that there are “literally millions” of people alive today who are related to the immediate family of this 15th-century sovereign.

It was the descendants of one of his sisters that allowed researchers to use the DNA to help identify the Richard III bones found in Leicester.

The scholar says it is often not understood how many family trees can overlap when going back so many generations.

“I always tell people that we are all related. It’s just a matter of degree, “he says.

Partly it’s the numbers. If we go back more than 20 generations, based on the average reproduction rate, we will all have millions of ancestors.

Instead of separate trees, he says that family ties become like intertwined thickets.

Although there is the idea that royals are special and separate beings, Professor King says that the genetic reality is that we are all the product of centuries of mixing and merging, migration, social ups and downs, interrelated in many ways.

Many of us have varied and shared ancestors.

And if you go back in time even further – a few thousand years or so – the professor of genetics assures that there are even broader patterns of common ancestry, not only within Britain, but also between people living in different countries. countries and continents.

“We are all part of one giant family,” says King.

Being able to navigate a path back to a medieval relative will depend on finding an “entry ancestor,” he says. Else Churchill, genealogist for the London Genealogists Society.

It would have to be someone rich, famous, or perhaps infamous enough to be well documented and provide a trail for a family historian.

And if someone manages to piece together that path, Churchill says it is “quite likely” that they will run into a royal relative.

“We depend on the survival of the records”, He says. “We all have the same number of ancestors, but we don’t always know their names,” he adds.

Likewise, many of us have “a lineage that goes back directly to a group of peasants,” says the expert.

People are increasingly turning to DNA to establish family ties.

And Churchill found his own unexpected story. But it was not about being related to a medieval king.

“Through DNA I discovered that my father is not my father,” he says.

“For 40 years I have been investigating the Churchills. It was surprising, I had no idea.

“I know people who have been shocked to find something like this. Personally, I was not shocked but it made me think about identity, “he says.

Churchill, whose parents are no longer living, says the discovery did not change his sense of family relationships, nor did it diminish his enthusiasm for the detective work of genealogy.

“Family is not necessarily genes and it is not necessarily ancestry,” he concludes. (E)