King James.... moi? .....

[JimM]

First the good news...
I have discovered that I have almost certainly got Royal roots ("the odds are virtually 100 percent")

Now the bad news... s

So have all you lot

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13662242/

James the gullible

[AnneM]

Hi jim

Do you think we have the same Royal ancestor or a different one. Myself I always liked the idea of Lucretia Borgia.

Anne the deeply aristocratic.

[DavidWW]

Hmmmmmmmm......................

This type of story regularly crops up.

"The odds are virtually 100 percent", - Aye, that'll be right

The logic goes like this......... King XXXXX and Queen YYYYYYY had 6 children who all married and they all had children, and so on and on, across all the generations to the present day, and it doesn't take too many generations before the resultant number of descendants is into the miillions.

There's two flaws in this logic, which I'm going to leave TS members to tease out.

But I will leave you with the following thoughts. On the basis of the above logic, any of the early Stuart kings (who married and had a number of children, - both legitimate and illegitimate!) should have a number of descendants approaching the present population of Scotland of 5m, - not impossible, of course, given the Scottish diaspora.

But there were maybe 999,998 other people in Scotland at that era, i.e. the population was somewhere around 1 million. Let's say that 50,000 of that 1m were married couples, then the same logic should apply to all those couples (well nearly all, aprart from those who were childless). On that basis it doesn't take too long with a calculator to work out that the present population of the whole world must be descended from Scots ........

And that's without taking into account anyone living furth of Auld Scotia in the last few centuries.

So who's going to bell the cat , and work out the reasons why the original logic is incorrect. Of the two main reasons, the one is the reason why there aren't anything even beginning to approach the numbers of royal and other descendents that this logic demands that there are.

Good luck to Brook Shileds, and if she chooses to believe that tree, then good luck to her.

BTW, I've always wondered where I got these high cheekbones from along with my "Mongolian eyes" k [see http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/27/2700175.pdf ]

David

[JimM]

Hi Anne
I remember the telly program about the Borgias... wouldn't like to cross any of that lot 8-[
David seems to have shot down my claim to the throne... but I'll bide my time watching spiders and burning cakes

James the Pretender


Oh... and I probably wull come back again

[HeatherH]

I have to agree with Davie.While the monarches of the past did manage to have surviving offspring from both sides of the blanket.To assume that we all decend from those royals would mean that no one else in the lower classes was doing the same.I must admit for everyone I come across with a long list of ag labs and miners there are dozens who lay claim to one royal house or another.Why? Because as we trace backwards the records decrease in information and eventually just disappear.After all its not that long that we have been using surnames to identify which John was which in a village.So as people reach into the 16th and 15th century and can only find 1 record for Joe Green it must be theirs.Not taking into account that most of the locals who were about have no records of ever existing at all unless there is some account in the local Lords household books or some such.For example Joe Green the blacksmith saves the young prince from a sure death and manages an entry in the dungeon records for his troubles as Daddy dear had thought he had finally found a way to get rid of his greatest contender to his Title. A bit far fetched I agree but why would anyone be keeping a record of the locals other than who was paid what yearly for service .Which if you could find these records would give no clues as to who the wee wifie was or how many bairns were working alongside in the fields.I call it paper bag genealogy.All you need to do is pop a bunch of names, dates, and places into a paper bag and gie it a good shake.Tip it out on your desk and presto...you are a direct decendant of Gunga Din.
There is a Gent doing a DNA study on the Haldane clan.He is a well known genealogist who has over 40 years in the field and has written several books.He has met with the present Lord of Glen Eagles and been given permission to write a more up to date book on the family and its members.He decided with all the names in his considerable data base he wanted to know if we all decend from the same Haldane or were there indeed more than 1 clan.Its still very early but with even a very few samples of DNA he has already found that there is definetly more than 1 branch of the family.Unfortunetly for me the test is only for the male line so I will just have to sit back and wait for the book.I did manages to stump him though as he has thousands of people in his files and not 1 leads to my branch.
Happy Hunting
The non- Royal HeatherH

[sheilajim]

Hi Jim

I read that article about 3 or 4 weeks ago. It seems that every week of so, some article comes up, about some actor or politician being descended from one, or many famous people of the past. Wasn't it James I, or VI who was descended from the God Wotan?

I think that it is so funny that the elite who are about 5% of the population have so many descendants. Considering how so many of these people acted, you have to wonder why anyone would want to be related to them. The only reason that I would want to be related to them is that they are easier to trace.

How about the reverse. I am sure that the Royal Family has peasant roots somewhere in their past.

Of course everybody is related to everyone else. Whether you believe in Adam & Eve, or Understand Evolution, we all must admit that humanity had a starting point at one time.

Regards

Sheila

[DavidWW]

Just to stir the pot a wee bit ..... even ...............

Some of you may not be aware of this situation .... see http://www.oxfordancestors.com/your-maternal.html

Wikipedia also has a good article on the subject at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

David

[Davie]

An here's me thinkin' that we were aw descendit frae Jock Thamson.
Mind you, two o' ma cousins ur Queens.
Davie