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I have never quite understood the apparent fascination with royalty and noble or royal ancestors. Afterall, my own ancestors fought a long war to establish a nation without kings or queens. Nevertheless, there are and will always be a significant number of genealogically inclined people who will be trying to connect to European kings, queens and the nobility. If you are at all interested in royal or noble lines, then you will need to start doing carefully documented research using only accepted pedigrees and lists.
It is important to understand a few of the terms used in this context. Here are some definitions:
- Royalty - generally, people who are directly related by inheritance from a king or queen.
- Nobility - people with hereditary or honorary titles in a given country
- Gateway ancestor - an individual who is proven or accepted as having some connection to European royal families
One prominent US authority on this subject is Nathan Murphy. Nathan worked for FamilySearch at the Salt Lake Family History Library for a long time and now is employed, according to my latest information, by Ancestry's ProGenealogists. Nathan has provided an excellent starting point for researching both royal and noble lines in a FamilySearch Blog article published back on October 13, 2015, entitled, "Documenting Royal Ancestry." Here are some other links to articles he and others have written that should be mandatory reading for anyone from the United States who is aspiring to have a royal or noble pedigree line.
- “I Have My Family Tree Back to Adam and Eve” January 10, 2013 By Nathan Murphy
- Medieval IOUSes in FamilySearch Family Tree, The Ancestry Insider
- The Etiquette of Having Noble and Royal Ancestors John P. DuLong
- Genealogy of the French in North America, Quebec and Acadian Royal Descends (QRD30)- Main references
- Epidemic of false medieval ancestries for colonial immigrants
- Lineage Societies: Genealogy 105: Pre-1820 Immigration, Lesson 7
- How to Trace Royal Lineage – Basics for Your Research
This list could go on an on. Online family trees are rife with undocumented connections to royalty and nobility and any such connection should be carefully documented.
ReplyDeleteRE: Epidemic of false medieval ancestries for colonial immigrants doesn't necessarily need to refer to Royalty. I am currently working on plain old false genealogy believed by an entire family and their descendants. Sources are not required to make it true.