New ITV Documentary - Does your family tree connect back to British royalty?

[ErinCasting]

Does your family tree connect back to the British royal family? If so, Daisybeck Studios would love to speak to you!

We are looking to find people who think they might have a historic ancestral connection to Britain's royals for a new royal history tv programme.

It might be a family rumour or maybe you’ve done some research and spotted a historic link to the crown...

We’d love to hear your story and to help find out if your royal rumours are true. We are working with a team of genealogists who will be trying to prove these ancient royal connections. 

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[AntonyMMM]

Should have plenty of candidates, but rather depends on the timescale of the connection ?

Go back far enough and most of the population of UK descent will have a connection to Royalty eventually.

And what is a connection ? I had someone who wanted me to prove they were "descended" from the Stuart Royal family of the 1600s. There was indeed a "connection" -  I can't remember the exact details but it was something like the wife of the person's uncle had a 2nd cousin who married someone who was a distant relative of an illegitimate child of Charles II (I think) .... not really "descended from"  !

[Ray T]

Personally, I’m more than pleased to think that I’m probably not!

[KGarrad]

In 1911, the Marquis of Ruvigny estimated from documented family trees that Edward’s living descendants numbered around 80,000 to 100,000. The number today, after four more generations of children, would be much greater.

[AntonyMMM]

In 1911, the Marquis of Ruvigny estimated from documented family trees that Edward’s living descendants numbered around 80,000 to 100,000. The number today, after four more generations of children, would be much greater.

I've seen estimates that put the number of Edward III's living descendants at around 4-5million, and some have suggested that virtually everyone (99%+) of predominantly English ancestry is descended from him in some way....

http://community.dur.ac.uk/a.r.millard/genealogy/EdwardIIIDescent.php

Take it back to earlier kings, e.g. William I, and the probability is even higher.

...have to say it isn't something that interests me as a genealogist.

[AntonyMMM]

...

[Albufera32]

If Edward III does indeed have around 4 - 5 million living descendants, since the population of the UK is around 70 million, that suggests that even assuming all his descendants are still in the UK, only about 7% have any descent from him. In reality, the chances are more than half of those descendants will be in the US, Australia Canada etc, so the true value is probably closer to about 3%.

As for the suggestion that everyone with "English" Ancestry is related to Edward III, surely since Edward was Plantagent, their ancestry would be French, not English.

 I always find it amusing to see Richard III talked about as the last "English" king of England given that the Tudors were Welsh, the Stewarts Scottish and our current Royal Family are somehow classed as German (despite their descent depending on the Stewart line). The Plantagent and Norman kings were no more English than the Tudors, Stewarts and Hanoverians were.

[Ray T]

On the other hand - going the other way - assuming you have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 g-grandparents, 16 gg-grandparents, 32 ggg-grandparents etc. etc., by the time you get back to the Bronze Age you're likely to have more ancestors than the population of the UK at that time - I'm sure somebody has worked the figures out!

[ThrelfallYorky]

I'm just delighted, considering some of the people who claim to have "Royal" links, that I'm really sure I haven't ANY!