Am I of (proveable) royal descent?

[ThrelfallYorky]

....But hasn't it occurred to TheNineteenth that I don't hope to find Royalty or even Nobility?? I'm quite happy knowing I come from people who farmed, and made things, and had skills.... The last thing I'd want is to discover an ancestor (probably on the wrong side of the blanket) who was merely "Royal"
TY

[Skoosh]

You were talking about "Distinguished Parliamentarians", Mogg is nothing of the sort. Party politics has nothing whatsoever to do with it!

Skoosh.

[Sloe Gin]

Some odd comments on this thread, some of them not very pleasant.  We can't help who we descend from.  Surely what we all hope for is to have traceable ancestors, whoever they are, rather than permanent brick walls. 

[clairec666]

I'm with you there, Sloe Gin. I don't consider myself to be a product of my parents, or any previous generations - I am my own person, and I can only feel proud of my own achievements, not those of my ancestors. So being descended from royalty means nothing to me. (Besides, the majority of us are descended from royalty, even if it's not provable.)

So why am I researching my family history, you might ask... I just find it fascinating to trace people through the centuries, see what they did, how their wealth and status changed.

[Erin2012]

Yes Clairec666... Its all just so interesting.... Thats why we do it. And coming from Royalty is a fun anecdote to share.

[TheNineteenth]

Billyblue, we are all certainly descended from a common ancestor. Either Adam and Eve, an African ape, or a dinosaur-era fish, depending on your outlook. This topic is about *proveable* descent, though...

Rosinish - I do show doubt. I've had to rely on the peerage lines from about 1500 upwards. And, like any research, there's always the potential for doubt. Not sure a DNA test would work on this project, really...

chris_49 - perhaps 1/8th of your family is related to Rees-Mogg, and the other 7/8ths to his Nanny

Cell - blimey, you're taking me back. Her birth date is buried in the documents I was looking at a decade and a half ago. Fairly sure I've never seen her birth cert - the first two generations were completed by an Uncle, and I took over. I've joined everything together about them to my own satisfaction through parish records and censuses, though.

ThrelfallYorky - I have plenty of ancestors with skills who had bloody awful lives. And I can't trace them back before about 1490 - that's my earliest 'non royal' line. It's just if you are descended from royalty, you can pull things back hundreds of years further. And that's the appeal here. Not being descended from King John who, frankly, is somewhat crap.

Sloe Gin - Thanks, yes. That is my aim.

[Andrew Tarr]

I don't consider myself to be a product of my parents, or any previous generations - I am my own person, and I can only feel proud of my own achievements, not those of my ancestors.

I think I know what you mean, but that's a strange way of putting it ? 

[Rosinish]

I'm directly descended from a King William (which I can prove) but strangely enough I have no record with the word "King" attached   

Truth time....

I just had to add that wee bit as I couldn't help but think of my dad who in my eyes was the 'King' of all fathers 

If he'd lived, he would have been 100 yrs old today but sadly passed away 10 yrs ago aged 90.

I'd always hoped for him to receive that 'Telegram' but sadly it wasn't to be 

Annie

P.S. I'm not sad, was just wee addition to lighten the conversation 

[Andrew Tarr]

I can understand the urge to take one's lineage back to some landmark personage.  The trouble is that once beyond (say) 1750, the waters get increasingly murky and the level of doubt increases.  There needs to be a 'reliable' source of local information, preferably combined with a relatively distinctive surname; and even then there was the annoying habit of earlier generations to keep recycling a limited set of forenames.  If any one of your assumptions is wrong the whole cardhouse collapses - though you will be blissfully unaware .... 

My Tydeman (fairly rare) ancestors emerged from a Suffolk village, presumably having arrived from the Low Countries, perhaps in the 1400s.  Almost routinely their first sons were alternately Edmund or Brice, right down to my grandfather (who had no sons).  I soon gave up trying to tell who was who, or which gravestone was the 'right' one.