How does one know if a relative is a descendant of a King?

Question

I'm currently working on a profile for the England Project. The person whose profile I am working on has quite a lot of info but it isn't formatted or sourced. The main issue is at the top of the page is written A Descendant of King Edward III. There is no further mention of this within the body of the profile. How/or why would someone know this? would it just be something passed down by family. Also how would I go about finding out if this was true. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

Comments

Are there enough connecting profiles to connect him to the tree? If you reference the profile in question, you will get a more definitive answer.

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Thanks K Smith, so far nothing is jumping out at all, in fact a fairly basic family so far, with few references and before the census were undertaken so even less connections at this stage. I will keep looking just in case but absolutely nothing other than the line at the top that says there is a connection. It's the first time I have come across anything like this. I will keep an eye out as I continue to add to the profile and connections. Thanks again.

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If the connection is there, it will reveal itself eventually

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Can you please give a link or reference number for the profile? I suppose it is worth checking. Wikitree does not show all known connections to Edward III, and so a person could be a real descendant even if we don't show it yet.

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https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Relationship&action=calculate&person1Name=Plantagenet-70&person2Name=Pinch-119

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Thanks Eva

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Should perhaps have explained that I looked at Vicki's recent contributions an found one profile that had "Descendant of King Edward III" as the first sentence in the bio.

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I'm sorry  Andrew I now can't find the link?? stupidly I didn't write it down and had moved on to other profiles. In fact that creates a new question for me which is, should I record each profile I am working on? I seem to have many open tabs, and then eventually have to delete them and realise I have sometimes lost what I am working on. Which I guess leads to another question which is, do people keep a list of their profiles, or am I missing a way in which I can look them up on wikitree if I have closed the tab?? Probably a stupid question but I still have so much more to learn

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I think it is a good question that might interest many other wikitreeers. :)

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@Vicki - the profiles you work on are listed in your Contributions.  Go to the dropdown menu 'My WikiTree' and 'Contributions' is near the top.

Or go to your own profile, and your contributions are near your name at the top.

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Oh that's great to know, thanks so much Ros, mean's I can find any one I have accidently lost! and can't find my way back to complete their profile...phew!!!! so pleased to know that.....x

Answer 1

In my answer I will try to cover cases where Wikitree will not show you easily because a descendant of Edward III has not yet been connected to him. 

There is no general rule which will work for all kings but in the case of Edward III we have done some work to try to make it easier to track connections which are not yet part of our tree. 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:A_table_of_descendants_of_Edward_III

Comments

According to the information given by Eva about which profile this case involves, it is one where Wikitree does already show a link to Edward III. So I suppose the next question is whether it is correct.

The (complicated) tables we used when we double checked Wikitree a few years ago helped us track 5 generations. In this case the first 5 generations were among those which we confirmed as corresponding to information from good sources. So this would bring us to Cecily Grey [[Bonville-11]] in this line. Those 5 generations are for example all in Richardson, as well as other references works, and I don't see any sign of doubts.

The next three generations are also easy to track, involving members of parliament. So it is the last 6 generations starting with the Doctons which are more difficult to judge with the sourcing we have posted so far. I would encourage researchers interested in this Edward III connection to look to see if there is any more sourcing available to make the case more watertight and visible.

Answer 2

King Edward III's Wiki-ID is Plantagenet-70.  Go to his profile, and click on the dropdown menu headed 'Plantagenet-70' and scroll down.  Click on 'Relationship to Me' and put in the Wiki-ID of the profile you are working on.

Most English people will be descended from Edward III, or else connected to him in some way.  My guess is that what you have seen is what we sometimes call 'wishful genealogy' (where someone would *like* to be descended from a king).

Comments

LOL thanks Ros, I can't see anything on the info added to the profile. There is a lot of information however it has not been sourced or entered correctly. So I am working on getting that correct and with the sources. As I mentioned so far, nothing that I can see. I live in Oz so don't quite understand the wish to be descended from royalty, but I understand that it can be something some people would like. It just seemed so odd to have that line stating connected to King Edward III with absolutely nothing to give any hint there is a connection. But  will do that check that you mentioned that sounds interesting to double check. Thanks so much. Vicki Heneker-11

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People do like to be able to connect themselves to royalty, my family were quite excited to have a possible connection to Edward the 3rd.

If only we knew which of 3 men all with the same first and last name and born within 3 years in the same place and who were first cousins was the person who married my 8 x GGM.

The marriage record does not give the name of the groom's father.

If I ever find a name for the groom's father it will either confirm or refute a connection to Edward the 1st.

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Vicki, I'd go further and say that we don't really have much special personal connection to any of our relatives, poor or rich, once you get back 200 years or more. My interest in searching back so far is mainly because it is a way of studying history.

Whenever it is actually possible to find connections between less famous people it can be more interesting than studying the connections of famous people. HOWEVER, the famous people appear in more records and are better studied, and so studying their connections is often a great starting point for studying the connections of all the less known well-known people.

Having a connection to Edward III does not make you special. It is quite common. However, studying all the steps in that connection is a great way to learn about how families changed over time.

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Hi Andrew, yes no problems, they aren't my family I was just working on the profile as part of the England Project.

Like you history is my first love, having worked in the Archives of the State Library of South Australia, history was and always has been my first love and interest. Which is why I love working on the England Project. With most of my family emigrating either from England, Ireland and some from Europe I love English history and always have. I was just querying the fact that someone had written the line about being related to Edward !!! with nothing else to add any further info. Wasn't sure if I should even keep it on the profile (bio section) or delete it as nothing at all about that peice of information.

Cheers Vicki Heneker-11