So You Think You are Royal

[robinthered]

hi Patrish
have just read the Schedule and the last episode on Mon 2nd July is  Charles II perhaps somebody just had a better story than yours/
robin

[Grothenwell]

I have really enjoyed the series, not just because I think I have a link back to "Royalty" (won't bore you with the story). It has been ordinary people, not celebs, being helped by what looks like good genealogical research. And much, much better than that BBC1 morning programme that was on a few months ago. I can't even remember it's name it was something to do with genes.

Anyway that leads me on to one of the series the last one perhaps; they did DNA testing on the male lines of the Surname, (was it Bowes?) for a link to the Queen Mother's lineage. They seemed to conclusively say there was no link, but it didn't really explain how they could be so sure. Surely to do so they would have had to have gotten a Y-DNA specimen from a male Bowes from the QM side, to complicate things her male surname was actually, I think, Lyons. Can anyone explain to me how they managed to rule the ladies out from their hoped for link?

Thanks,

Grothenwell

[jillruss]

What's happened to this series?

I was quite looking forward to watching it last night - it was listed in the Radio Times - but a completely different programme came on! Very disappointing! Then I checked next week's listings and it's disappeared altogether!

It had already been moved to 11.00p.m so I'm thinking it wasn't very popular and they've given it the chop. Pity - after the first programme about Grace Kelly which was very silly ( the programme wasn't called 'So You Think You're Related to a Film Star'), I was rather enjoying the series. Admittedly, part of the attraction was trying to work out why it was so important to these people to be related to 'someone of royal birth', but it did contain a bit of actual genealogy as well.

Oh well, what can you expect of Sky One? Perhaps they'll try again? How about 'So You Think You Are Related To A Footballer's Wife?' I'm sure that'll pull them in... 

Jill

[robinthered]

hi
its seem that it has been dropped by Sky One,it is however still showing on Sky Three on Thursday and Sunday.
As to .........."Admittedly, part of the attraction was trying to work out why it was so important to these people to be related to 'someone of royal birth', but it did contain a bit of actual genealogy as well."............
As I have said "it was an amazing two weeks of traveling and a once in a lifetime opportunity of having professionals doing the work. We also ended up with a stack of information, papers and references which would have taken years to collect any other way, also access to some people and places which would otherwise be impossible.
robin

[Necromancer]

Anyway that leads me on to one of the series the last one perhaps; they did DNA testing on the male lines of the Surname, (was it Bowes?) for a link to the Queen Mother's lineage. They seemed to conclusively say there was no link, but it didn't really explain how they could be so sure. Surely to do so they would have had to have gotten a Y-DNA specimen from a male Bowes from the QM side, to complicate things her male surname was actually, I think, Lyons. Can anyone explain to me how they managed to rule the ladies out from their hoped for link?

I puzzled over this at the time - played it back and they seemed to be saying that all male Bowes in the area (including the hitherto unknown male cousins of the 2 ladies with the 'claim') had diferent Y-chromosomes  .... hence no common origin for people with the same name ... in the same geography ... it made the de Bretts guy comment that he would revise his opinion about the % probability of common surname having a common ancestor.

I guess they decided that it would be the same for the QM male line ?

Either that or the QM line wouldnt co-operate 

[Grothenwell]

Pity that Sky has moved it. It must not be drawing in the viewing figures they'd hoped for.

There has certainly been a lack of Rootschat posts regarding this series, certainly compared to the BBC "celebs find they came from plebs" show. I did enjoy that show too, for the same reasons, showing genealogy done well. It's just this show appears, by using a presenter and a professional, to be consistently good (my DNA query aside) whether the link is to "Royalty" or Grace Kelly or Elizabeth Bowes Lyon who married into Royalty. Whereas the BBC show could occasionally be a bit disappointing, in my view. Admittedly there were also some gems, that couldn't be faulted.

Why were there more posts? Hopefully it was because more people had access to the BBC, than Sky, and not because it was about TV/Film stars. If so "Heat" magazine might open a genealogy page. Mind you Nick Barratt (of the Sky programme) in the Saturday Telegraph has beaten them to it!

Robin can you ask one of the producer mates to answer my DNA query?

Cheers,

Grothenwell

[Necromancer]

Rejected mine then ? 

[Grothenwell]

Sorry Newfy our posts must have crossed

Good point. I wish they'd explained that bit better. How many Bowes they tested, how many matched each other. Wouldn't it have been weird if they said to some other random Bowes volunteer "well actually you are related to the Queen Mum!" it would have been a bit of a slap in the face for the two ladies but great telly!

There is one person with "Bowes" as a name in the SIT. If I were them I'd see if I could find out if my DNA matched any of the ones tested. I bet all the results have had to be destroyed due to data protection, where I'm sure all the volunteers would have happily be linked to a distant cousin, or else they probably wouldn't have volunteered.

The Queen Mum's mum was a Bowes, so they'd have had to have gone back a fair bit then forward to find a Male Bowes if one still exists, (probably the Debretts chap knew who'd be the correct one to sample). Surely if he did they'd have asked? The Glamis castle Bowes Lyon Lady couldn't have been nicer, perhaps the Bowes line was less so.

I'm in danger of losing my chance of a Knighthood I'd better shut up

[pjbuk007]

Many of us do not have Sky, I know 8 million in the UK do, but I suspect that the demographic of family historians tends towards that of non-Sky subscribers.

Hence not so many watch this programme.