I'm just curious (as a newbie) how common it is for one to find royalty in their family histories? I've found what seems to be a rather large number for kings, emperors, dukes, etc in my family tree and I'm just wondering if that happens to a lot of people, or if I'm just that lucky.

thanks,
-James

Mines too may amaze me.

You too!!! Are ya scared??LOL!! All the messed up stuff that happened in the family. Pretty darn wacky!! I was mortified!! I was never interested in finding royalty,just were the family came from and then whamo!!!
Then you think think what the heck???What happened?? I'm still in shock!!

Mee too!!!!!!YUP!!!

Just one example, a noted genealogist in England has estimated that about 90% or more of all people of English ancestry can trace their descent back to King Edward III.

One nice thing about it is that Royal and aristocratic familes often have better records kept of their births, marriages, deaths, etc. than the very poor and that's a help to those of us trying to find branches in the family trees.

My own tree not only has its share of royal ancestors and peers, but also "does not branch" like it ought to due to cousins marrying cousins. I like to joke, that I am So Southern, I am related to myself; but I would venture to guess that more people have the same tangled tree branches than know about it ot admit it.

it seems to be fairly common, the more monarch ancestors you have the less common it is.

I am descendant of every royal monarchy in Europe including some in Asia, Africa and the middle east. However I have found that there are at least 100,000 in the world with similar lineage lines. Royal ancestry is common, how many of them is not.

Fascinating stuff. William I The Conqueror was the first King that I found in my line, and from there to Charlemagne to Flavius Theodosius I(that's not the end, but the line and dates after are 'iffy'. Many Emperors, Kings, and Queens from all over Euope, Asia, Middle East, and even a few Saints lol.

Maybe it's really not that rare, but two of my other lines don't go far at all.

It's all academic, but it is interesting.

So glad I joined Ancestry.com, otherwise I would never have known this.

-Thad