Thursday June 29th
Walking out this morning, for the second morning in a row, it wasn’t totally oppressive. The temperature was a balmy 78°.. The dew point was hanging at 76°.. of course the humidity was its normal 95%… Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still warm and I’d be much happier if it was 3:00 in the afternoon and the temperature was 78°. But anything beats temperatures above 80° when the sun hasn’t come up yet.
The forecast high for today is not quite as high That’s what we’ve been living through. The long range forecast shows a lessoning of this severe heat in the coming week. But I won’t get my hopes up.. because we’re just about to start the month of July. And after that comes a month of August. And high summer usually hangs on around here at least until the middle of September.
But enough about the Texas weather. I got lost for a while in an online article about genealogy and the chances of being related to royalty. The article discussed the odds of both a lineage relationship and a DNA relationship. I found it quite informative.
It also explains why and how my lineage on WikiTree can be traced back to both British and French royalty. It’s not about my recent ancestors.. it’s all about the fact that if you go back far enough almost everybody can trace their lineage to someone in the royal line…
For example, if you go back 25 generations, you have more than 33 million ancestors. As population sizes were relatively small back then – in the year 1200, the global population was somewhere between 360 and 450 million – the chance that this extended family tree includes royalty becomes much greater.
But when it comes to how far the average person might have to go back in order to find a link to royalty, Holton suggests that the earliest timeframe might be the 16th Century, unless it is already well-known within the family that there are noble connections.
My connections as shown in WikiTree are:
- I and Mary (Stewart) Stuart Queen of Scots (1542-1587) are both descendants of Maria (Egmond-Gelre) Queen Regent of Scotland (bef.1433-abt.1463).Gary and Mary are third cousins 13 times removed. According to WikiTree I have 17 direct ancestors in Scottish Royalty.
- I and Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski (1732-1798) are both descendants of James (Hamilton) Hamilton First Earl of Arran (abt.1475-abt.1529). Gary and Stanisław August are 7th cousins 7 times removed
- Blanca (Castilla) de Castille (1188-1252). I am her 23rd great grandson. Blanche of Castile (Spanish: Blanca de Castilla; 4 March 1188 – 27 November 1252) was Queen of France by marriage to Louis VIII.
- Afonso (Portugal) de Portugal (1109-1185). I am his 25th great grandson. He was the first king of Portugal.
There are more cousins and ancestors hiding in history and my linage but probably not in my DNA… Including the current King of England… King Charles III and I are 15th cousins once removed through his father Prince Philip.
As much fun as it was to chase down my connection to royalty.. real life intrudes. So y’all have a great day and I’ll catch y’all on the other side…
