Are You *Really* Related to Someone Famous?
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- čas přidán 15. 09. 2022
- If you've heard stories that you're related to King Charles or some other famous person, how do you know if the story is true? Here's how to see if there's a connection in your family history.
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One of my great grandfathers was regionally famous and I regularly get to deal with disappointed people who think they're related and aren't. Their disappointment is exhausting, but I know it's not their fault that their family stories are confused. Thanks for encouraging people to research!
According to the leading geneticists, no human being of any race can be less closely related to any other human than approximately fiftieth cousin, and most of us are a lot closer.
I've actually used my relation to a famous cousin to help determine how certain genetic matches were related to me. My 1st cousin once removed is a famous actress and over the years I have had a few genetic matches mention "we've heard Jill was a cousin. Do you know anything about that?" That really helped confirm my suspicions of relation based on their shared matches, and we are talking Jewish endogamy with tons of shared matches and a family name of Goldberg! Luckily we ended up finding multiple manifest records that helped prove things even more!
Way to use all the clues you could!
Please don’t encourage these ideas! There is a Swedish tv show where American descendants of Swedish emigrants come to Sweden and learn about their family history. One woman in that show was convinced that she was related to the Swedish royal family and she ranted about it all the time. Quite early in the show she learned that one of her ancestors got a medal from the king for starting an orphanage for boys. That’s as close they got to the royal family. The woman kept very quiet the rest of the show, which was a blessing.
I'm encouraging people to investigate whether the stories they've heard about having a "famous relative" are true or not, rather than just accepting the story. I'm not saying people should go out seeking a royal (or other famous) connection.
Ok, that’s good. But I know how appealing a royal reference is to Americans, that’s why I reacted to this post.
When the American version of ”Who do you think you are?” started airing it showed celebrities with exciting ancestry, like Brooke Shields being related to the royal family in France. It didn’t show celebrities with ”normal” backgrounds or any ordinary people at all.
I think that was really bad for genealogy, to give people the idea that if you just start researching your ancestors you will find some royalty there.
Not everyone aspires to be related to royalty. Some aspire to be related to humble Natives. Then, some, or most, find out they are not.
Excellent information! Thank you for sharing your insight!
You’re quite welcome! Thanks for watching 😊
This is not a complaint, more of a realization. The more videos I watch ongoing and searching for my genealogy, the more I find out that I bit off more than I bargained for. My father's side goes back to England from France. My mother's and father's mother's side are in Europe, Germany, and Switzerland(?).
I neither read or speak German. I have much to learn from all of you.
I found a celeb (he’s long since passed away) on a pedigree chart on a family line. And it’s a weird series of twists and turns, but I am related to him. Had a 4th cousin also mention another celeb (still living) that we’re related to. Sure enough, found him on the family tree.
I had carefully researched a line showing that John Cogswell, who came to America in 1635 from England, was my 10th great grandfather. When I joined the Cogswell Family Association, they had already done the research showing that PRINCESS DIANA descended from John Cogswell as well (one of her ancestors under John, a woman here in the US with a lot of family money,, married a lord in England, thus getting Diana's line back to the UK, a true Downton Abbey story!). When I lined up our descent from John, turned out that Diana and I are exactly 11th cousins! What would have happened if the roles were reversed, and MY line ended back in England?? Would I have married Charles, now king?? As intriguing as it sounds, I'm completely content with my hubby of 40 years 😊😄!
The “what if”s in history are fun to contemplate, aren’t they 😊
I've also found out Diana is my 11th cousin once removed through a George Farewell 1579-1647.
We have the same favorite collaborative family tree! 😀
I thought I came from poor Midwest farmers. But after doing my grandfather's line I found out that line was part of settling the Midwest. Before that back east it goes into the Calvert line of the Baltimores. And then then Davis family of Wales was the first I found related to. Once you find someone famous there's a family group and dnaproject of the surname or person. Since mines on my maternal side I was verified by the family group administrators by genealogy with all records. I was then advised to make my tree private. And now that I've done more I see why. I was also told researchers and journalist try to access trees for info on historical families. And I'm putting all my stuff in a book for my line. I only use records for my tree. I used to be an accountant so I love the accuracy of genealogy.
I was shown the relationship tree between Mary Todd Lincoln and me. It was kind of cool.
My husband's family claimed to be descended from Royalty, possibly a Duke of Cambridgeshire on the illegitimate side. I love family legends so did the research.Er....no Royalty, but it did involve major land owners.
I found out by accident that I'm directly related through her mom's line to Queen Elizabeth. As well as all the high kings of Ireland and Scotland. George Washington is also a distant cousin we have the same great grandmother. And Susannah(maiden last name Martin) North. She's my 11th great grandmother on my mom's, dad's side. I went back to 0030ad so far on just one section of my mom's dad's side. Starting with the paternal side until I hit a dead end. Then I'd start filling in all of their wives lines and cross checking everything. Thank you to 23and me, great advice on CZcams, ancestry, wiki tree and all the other sites I used to double check the dates and places.
Surely if you had the same great grandmother of George Washington, you would be the same generation as him, WOW thats old, and do you mean paternal line of maternal, as George Washingtons maternal Grand mother was a Maureen Gale, she and her slave, are buried in my home town in England
You’re related to Anne Boleyn?
I have a lot of famous cousins rather than ancestors and ones who share a particular ancestor
One of my unresolved mysteries is that my Grampie, his aunt, and others said we're related to Ivor Novello, the early 20th C British singer. I did his tree back to the early 1800s and found some of his ancestors used similar names to mine. His Great grandfather was Evan David with sons Jacob and Daniel (generally uncommon names that I use for One Name Studies) and my 5x Grampie is Evan David with sons Jacob and Daniel. They're different people, but if there is a connection, it would have to be through my Evan David's ancestors, but unfortunately he and his wife, Anne, are brick walls. I don't even have siblings or anything for them. Hopefully one day I'll figure it out :)
Common names -- gotta love them. 😉
@@AmyJohnsonCrow No, we don't. Headaches all the way around.
My aunt did a whole book on my Dad’s side of the family. I’m trying to do my Mom’s now. I need to double check the aunt’s research just to make sure it’s accurate. But I think it is, she got help from a genealogist. Is there a degree in genealogy? Anyone know?
Build your family tree on Geni. Merge it into the world tree thoroughly, then go to whoever you think you're related to send click onHow are you related? And sit back. It might not be correct, and it might not be the connection you expected (then you'd have more work to do), but you're very likely to get SOMETHING...
Amy, do you have Jessie Christie from Ulster to Londonderry,NH 1719 to 1729? My ancestor is witness on his will. This family intermarried with Aiken and these Aikens intermarried with my direct line Robert Riddell.
I haven't done any further research on the Christy line, as they just married into the family.
I'm related to John ritter. 3rd cousins something something removed. LOL.... His dad and my great grandmother (or great-great.... i forget) were first cousins. He actually came to a ritter family reunion when i was like 3 or 4. I vaguely remember him holdin me and talking to me. I don't believe Jason was born yet. I don't recall him having kids with him. But it was a long time ago so the memories aren't what they once were.
What does a subclade distance of 0 mean ?
A subclade is a subgrouping of a haplogroup. (FamilyTreeDNA defines a haplogroup as "a major branch on either the maternal or paternal tree of humankind. Haplogroups are associated with early human migrations. Today these can be associated with a geographic region or regions.") A distance of 0 means that the two people have an exact match of their subclade.
Doing what you just said. I found I am a cousin to Wild Bill Hickok. Our common ancester is in second genearation in the new world.
According to WikiTree Queen Elizabeth II and I are 15th cousins once removed. We are related through our mothers. I don't know how accurate WikiTree is but they tell you who your famous cousins are as well as famous ancestors. According to them I am descended from King John and many of the barons who witnessed the Magna Carta and a cousin of almost all of the US Presidents except Trump.
According to mathematics (and a paper scientific someone wrote) for anyone of British decent (I can't speak for other countries) if you go back 800 years everyone alive then who has living decedents now is my ancestor. That's a lot of ancestors, it is just a numbers game. Plus records and sources and records...
For years I've been dealing with a frustrating brick wall. I believe I am somehow related to Martin Van Buren but cannot find the records to prove it. From about 1830 to 1900 my family went nutz, naming almost every firstborn male after MVB. I have almost 20 relatives named after him. Why?? He wasn't even one of the "biggie presidents." I'm assuming we're related to Van Buren somehow, going back to the 1700s when records are harder to come by and not as clear. This puzzle has been driving me crazy for more than 10 years.
It was pretty common to name sons foe presidents or other politicians. With the name going over generations, it’s often that the first one was named for the president, and the others (in later generations) were named for their relative, not the president.
She was my 12th cousin.
9th cousin twice removed for me. Somehow, I don’t think we’re going to get personal invitations to the coronation 😂
@@AmyJohnsonCrow Maybe we're related! Wouldn't that be something?
@@ameliafroehlich2577 She was my 16th cousin. Not that it matters much in the grand scheme of things. It's not like I can arrive on the King's doorstep & hit him up for a loan claiming I'm a cousin of your mother's.
Very Good!... #15 ✝ {9-16-2022}
Mitochondrial dna, for women should show that. It most likely isn't there. One day, I'll find my mtdna. I'd rather use autosomal. My blockage is on my father's side.
Mitochondrial DNA gets passed down from the mother to both sons and daughters, but only the daughters pass it down to their children. The only line that you can trace via mtDNA is a direct maternal line -- your mother > her mother > her mother > her mother, etc.
Oh Amy. I love my family work. Back six generations. Including cousins. Fun. No famous person. Asked my father if we had any one famous in our tree when I was young. He would laugh and say most likely a “Horse Thief”. Not found a Horse Thief. But who knows. I still might.
Problem - Illegitimate children.
There can still be records for illegitimate children!
@@AmyJohnsonCrow That's true and we are lucky to have them.