“Everyone is descended from william the conqueror”

[CovidCorvid]

I’ve heard this before and wondering how true it is.

Because I’ve just traced one branch of my family back that far. Henry 3rd is my 21x great grandfather according to everything I’ve found. I can go further back than William the conqueror to various noble men of Normandy and Rollo the Viking.

One of my husband's lines goes back to King Stephen of Hungary in the 970s

The genetic isopoint for Europe ie the time at which everybody alive at that time is related to everybody alive today is the tenth century. So pick any 10th century person and we're all related to them.

So a wee bit back from Norman but not far.

@ShowOfHands

The genetic isopoint for Europe ie the time at which everybody alive at that time is related to everybody alive today is the tenth century. So pick any 10th century person and we're all related to them.

So a wee bit back from Norman but not far.

I didn’t know that, that’s interesting. Is it more unusual to be a direct descendant which is what my family tree shows?

Oooh, any chance if a successful inheritance claim?

Well obviously not everyone, especially those without western european heritage.

But the maths does make it certain that most of us are related to each other to some degree. 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents.... 131,072 15x great grandparents. And that's only taking you back 400-500 years probably.

There's an interesting webpage

whoops

freepages.rootsweb.com/~pamonval/genealogy/howbig.html

which shows that if some guy in 1500 had 3 kids, and each of those kids had 3 kids and so on to the present day, he'd have something like 194 million direct descendants after 17 generations.

Y-Dna is very good for exploring this sort of thing.

@StrifeOfBath

Oooh, any chance if a successful inheritance claim?

I think I’ve got a more direct claim to the throne than the Queen! 😁😁😆

Yes. Pretty much everyone from England is directly descended from pretty much everyone in Norman times, including William the Conqueror. So I know it sounds exciting - but it isn’t. What is more exciting perhaps is the reminder of how closely related we all are. England is a thousand year old family.

www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-virtually-every-English-person-is-a-descendant-of-Alfred-the-Great/answer/Michael-Ruby-2

Not rare to be a direct descendant (as other have said, we mostly all are), but most people won't have done the work to be able to show it!

I'm sure what you say is true re: everyone being linked to people so far back but in Ireland the story is that most people are descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a tribal leader and warlord.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_of_the_Nine_Hostages#:~:text=Niall%20%22No%C3%ADg%C3%ADallach%22%20(pronounced%20%5B,6th%20to%20the%2010th%20centuries

DP has done extensive family history and he is related to William the Conqueror and a bunch of other Norman noblemen including Rollo on both sides. Very interesting to look at his family tree but yes probably pretty common.

The O' Brians and the O' Neill's are all related to his line along with many families aligned with the Kings' tribes.

I’m not. My DNA & ancestry is Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian. No French Norman in my DNA or my family tree.

Wow, never knew that.

@Weaselstoatferret

DP has done extensive family history and he is related to William the Conqueror and a bunch of other Norman noblemen including Rollo on both sides. Very interesting to look at his family tree but yes probably pretty common.

And he therefore must be related to me! 😁👍

Yes long lost cousins! I think Danny Dyer too if I remember his Who Do You Think You Are episode correctly.

It's fascinating, my DNA is heavily scandi and Scottish and my mum got quite far back in one branch of our tree thanks to some clan records. No Kings unfortunately but a few clan chieftains.

Yes I can trace back to William the Conqueror too (30 x great grandfather!) through my mother's side due to a gentry family having an illegitimate son with the maid in the 1600s! I thought everyone was related to each other even more recently than that, only about 16 or 17 generations back, especially with the Black Death in the 1300s heavily reducing the population.

Anyone with 4 English grandparents is said to be very likely to be descended from Edward III (and therefore from William).

However the only Norman link in my family appears to be on the Welsh side, a family who ended up as Marcher Lords. No royal blood though and no inheritance either sadly.

I wish I could get that far back! I have one branch of the family that come from Scotland (both gt-gt-grandparents on one family line). So far the rest seem to not appear in areas where records were well kept.

Me too, but I think it's quite common. My tree is poverty stricken for a long way back then I get to a black sheep son who ties into a noble family.

@EmpressCixi

I’m not. My DNA & ancestry is Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian. No French Norman in my DNA or my family tree.

Weren't the Normans Viking though? So could still be linked??

@SwedishEdith
It would be theoretically possible, as Normans did invade bits of Ireland (not Scotland though). But the DNA test ruled it out. Also no Norman surnames in my family tree. The Scandinavian is from my Scottish side which is from Orkney Islands. So those ancestors mixed a lot with Scandinavians as were a stop on the shipping lane from Denmark to Iceland.

My uncle has traced our family tree back to William the Conquerer. I do find it fascinating even though so many people are related to him.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/humans-are-all-more-closely-related-than-we-commonly-think/

According to this, it’s possible to be a direct descendant but have no genetic link.