who do you think you are

John of Gaunt was another royal with many descendants.

I haven't seen last nights yet but plan to; I have so much respect for that man...a complete hero of mine.

It's estimated that 1 in 200 men alive today is descended from Ghengis Khan. Sadly, I don't think WDYTYA could get hold of the documentation for that.

It was a bit weird seeing him on the news straight after. I found it a problem listening to what he was saying without thinking about him being descended from royalty.

how on earth can one hold 'posh' or 'poor' or even 'criminal' ancestry against someone? You can of course be fascinated or shocked- to find out the princes or skeletons in the family cupboard- but surely not ashamed. How can one be responsible for one's forebears' deeds?

Thinking about the line of succession, I think last night's showed that, if the direct line had not been tampered with (by giving the Crown to others thant those in line, even foreigners, when it suited) it would make Gardner closer to succeed than our (German) royals.

Remember the documentary of Lord Hastings, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, who was proven to be the direct successor to the Crown. He had emigrated to Australia where he was a sheep farmer and a staunch republican.

The Welsh surnames are the most difficult to research. So many with the same name and probably unrelated.
Unless your surname is Tudor of course!

I too enjoyed this weeks episode . I very much doubt everyone is descended from royalty, certainly not mine, Anglesey,Wales is the most difficult county to research and I doubt anyone of noble birth ! bothered to row across to the Island

I really enjoyed this episode (I was beginning to think I wouldn't bother any more).
I did comment to DH that there is more documentation still in existence if your family was in the higher echelons.
DM's cousin is descended from Edward IV - so presumably William the Conqueror - and they were always referred to as 'the posh side of the family'. I don't think (like some) that everyone is descended from royalty - some of our ancestors must have been the serfs and foot soldiers!

gillybob how wonderful to have all that family history - most of our stuff had been thrown out as 'not needed now'!

On of DH's sayings is that everyone has their cross to bear and, in this case, being 'posh' didn't help much.

I do not hold his "posh" against him - he just seemed a nice guy - that will do for me! And he was clearly very devoted to his Mum and was missing her.

Enjoyed Frank Gardener interesting and informative. Obviously a "posh" family but not without its trials and misfortunes. A GG who was in an asylum and an ancestor who was beheaded, fascinating stuff.

This goes to show that those whose families had money and influence centuries back have left more records of their existence than those who are poor.

We all have family going back to the time of the Norman conquest and before we just did not make it to national records.

In my family I had a few literate ancestors in Cheshire in the 18 century. famers with a bit of land whose children had an education and were in business. The Ag labs and framework knitters on the other side left little trace other than parish records.

I agree with HildaW I really didn't like Anne Reid very much at all. Enjoyed Frank Gardener last night although they were all a bit too "posh" for me.

I am very fortunate to be able to go back to the early 1800's in my own family without even trying. My grandma kept everything. War records, birth certificates, marriage certificates, brass rubbings, maps of where to find gravestones, old pay packets and thousands upon thousands of amazing photographs all of which we have talked about over the years making it quite easy to put names to faces. There's one thing for certain, there won't be any royal blood in my family !

I liked the fact that it got beyond one person.
I expect that when we get back to the 29x greats we could often get back to royalty when they double each time.

Haven't seen Frank Gardener yet though.

It was fascinating! And, I always knew that Frank Gardner would be a nice man!

I must be the only one who enjoyed the Anne Reid one. I love colourful characters, who say things that make other people react, - rather like the grans really. There are one or two grans who do the same and it never fails to create a reaction -

I've been watching some of the American version on Watch. They make a pleasant change of perspective, apart from the adverts. I've never heard of some of the subject's but it's usually still interesting.

Good programme - reminded me why I started watching the series; after the Anne Reid one I almost stopped.

My grandchildren can.
Two of them have a Danish mother whose parents can trace back to real Viking blood; the other two have a Norwegian grandfather who can do similarly.

I enjoyed this week's programme. I don't think I have any monarchs on my family tree. How interesting that the 'came over with the Normans' story has persisted in Frank Gardener's family. I know someone who swears she can prove her descent from Vikings; I am a bit sceptical.

I enjoyed the F Gardner prog. But if W the Conqueror was an ancestor so were a large number of other people. Going backwards it keeps doubling, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024.......so interesting but somewhat misleading. That's 10 generations and I believe Frank's line went back 23.

Frank Gardner was very interesting. He didn't say anything stupid when he learnt that his obviously innocent ancestor was beheaded a la Anne Reid!

The fact that he proved a belief held by his recently deceased mother made the programme more enjoyable.

Perhaps we all are!!

He turns out to be descended from William I as, I seem to remember did Alexander Armstrong when he was on the programme.