Meghan Markel ..Markle ?

or IV?

I very snobby lady I once knew used to name drop a lot and talk about "old families". Surely all our families are old?

Mine came out of Africa
[proud]

If you go back 1,000 years (which is about right for William the Conqueror) , the number of ancestors is a lot more than thousands. 1,000 years is around 40 generations. Going back 40 generations, you have one trillion ancestors. Obviously, that has to include some duplicates. It's probably the justification for saying that we're all related to everyone who was alive at the time of William the Conqueror.

I wasn't going back far as William the C for my crude estimate of 'thousands' counterpoint. Robert the Bruce is very early 14th Century, so only 700 years, not 1,000.

There must have been an awful lot of duplicates if you're talking of 'one trillion' in 1066ish. The population of Great Britain and Ireland can only have been a few million at that time.

(P.S I think we're working on different numbers of generations per 100 years and that your '4' is probably more correct than my '3'. So 700 years would be in the millions rather than thousands)

The population of England in the time of the Domesday Book (1086) is estimated at about 2 million.
(Not including the Celtic countries)

I read that her lineage goes way back to a distant king and that she's related to Harry in some way. Her paternal great-aunt's cousin's ex wife's uncle's dog-walker was married to a 3rd cousin once removed whose 3rd child out of wedlock was brought uo by a servant who used to bathe the king...or summat like that.

now I'm having a coughing fit Gabriella!

Well done Grans for turning cynicism into an entertainment! ?

I think everyone's bound to be connected to Edward III in some way. After all, he had plenty of offspring. We could start another Wars of the Roses. Might have some difficulty sorting out which side we're all meant to to be on...

GanriellaG, my money's on the dog. I may have told this story before but a guide at Edinburgh Castle told us of an American visitor who was adamant that she was descended from Greyfriars Bobby. The guide didn't know how to tell her he was a dog!

Apricity

??

I think most of us could very well be descended from Charles II.....he definitely got about a bit!

I am descended from Prince of Wales Owain Glyndwr - because I want to be ?

I have discovered I am descended from an ape named Urg. Around 6 - 8 millions years ago she woke up with a bad back so decided to walk upright for a while, found she preferred it and others copied her. She then managed to smuggle herself into UK and was able to claim enough benefits to raise a family

Oldwoman!! annie, you could well be - back to that family tree I'd say!!!!?