By Gary Boyd Roberts
We’ve written on several occasions about Gary Boyd Roberts amazing two volume work, The Royal Descents 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States(RD 900). This collection of royal lines possessed by North Americans represents Mr. Roberts’ magnum opus, and it is truly the product of a lifetime of study in field of royal and noble genealogy. RD 900 identifies an awe-inspiring number of historical figures from Continental Europe, the British Isles, or the United States who are related to millions of living descendants. Today we are highlighting a number of the remarkable descents and/or relationships Mr. Roberts has uncovered in his study. You will find them on the pages of the work indicated below.
Author’s Note: In the list below, “to” indicates descent (from ancestor A to descendant B, various generations later); “and” indicates kinship between the two or more listed figures; and “on chart with” indicates kinship to someone nearly related to the other notable(s).
1. Philip II, King of Spain, to Brooke Shields, p. 18 herein
2. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, sometime of Texas, as a first cousin of German Emperor William I, and a second cousin of Queen Victoria, p. 40
3. Kings of Denmark and Gustav I Vasa, King of Sweden, to Mrs. Kofi Annan, p. 60
4. James Boswell, on chart with Henry Robinson Luce, pp. 90-91
5. Lady Elizabeth Foster, Duchess of Devonshire, to Anna Wintour, p. 117
6. Wives of Sir Henry Morton Stanley (Dorothy Tennant) and Ezra Pound (Dorothy Shakespear), p. 130-31
7. “Rob Roy” MacGregor and Mrs. Karl Marx (Johanna [Jenny] Bertha Julie von Westphalen), pp. 146-47
8. Gordon Marquesses of Huntly to Stanislaus Poniatowski, King of Poland, and Queen Mathilde of The Netherlands, pp. 154-55, 163-64
9. Lord Byron on chart with James Monroe and Theodore Roosevelt, p.
10. James IV, King of Scotland, to President Harry S Truman, pp. 171-72
11. William the Silent and Baron von Steuben, p. 181
12. Queen Victoria and “Ben” Bradlee of the Washington Post, pp. 182-83
13. Pope Paul III Farnese and a sister-in-law of Lucretia Borgia to the von Trapp singers,
pp. 186-87
14. Heman Cortes, on chart with Andrew and Paul Mellon, pp. 189-93
15. Queen Victoria and the Moravian Zinzendorfs, pp. 196-97
16. Agnes Sorel and Diane de Poitiers to the Marquis de La Fayette and Philippe I, King of the Belgians, pp. 200-4
17. Kings of France and Gustav I Vasa, King of Sweden to the husband of Gladys Moore Vanderbilt of “The Breakers” (Ladislaus [Laszlo], Count Szechenyi), pp. 208-9
18. John Napier (of logarithms) to Alexander Hamilton, p. 214
19. William Penn on chart with the Marquis de Sade, pp. 226-27
20. Cesare Borgia to Alexis de Tocqueville, pp. 293-94
21. Lord Byron, Jane Austen, and the Leveson-Gower progeny to Warren Buffett and Gary Boyd Roberts, this work’s author, pp. xii-xiv, 295-99
22. American descendants of Mary Boleyn and possibly King Henry VIII, pp. 300-4
23. Richard More of the Mayflower, Anthony Trollope, Peter and Zara Phillips (children of Princess Anne) and Julie Helen Otto, the author’s collaborator on this work, pp. 319-21
24. The Woodvilles of late medieval England to Francis Scott Key, p.334
25. Elizabeth Plantagenet of York, Queen of Henry VII; and William Byrd II, p. 342
26. Fletcher Christian on chart with George Washington, p. 363
27. Gov. Thomas Dudley to wives of Lord Beaverbrook (Gladys Henderson Drury) and Norman Mailer (Lady Jeanne Louise Campbell), pp. 370-71
28. Harriet Martineau, the Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George, and Princess Charlotte,
pp. 379-80
29. Saltonstalls of Mass. (via cross-references) and W.H. Auden, pp. 403-4
30. John I de Lusignan, titular King of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and Armenia, d. 1432, to the Empress Josephine, p. 442
31. Parliamentary leader John Hampden and U.S. Senator John McCain, pp. 466-67, 469
32. The poet Shelley and the presidents Bush, p. 474
33. Edmund Spenser, Samuel Pepys, the Guinnesses of Ireland, and Anne Hutchinson,
pp. 478-81
34. The fourth and last wife of Gov. John Winthrop (Margaret Tyndal) and Salem witchcraft victim Rev. George Burroughs, pp. 483-84
35. James Madison on chart with Barack Obama (with kinship to Robert E. Lee mentioned in the introduction), pp. 497-98
36. Wellington and The Queen Mother on chart with Eisenhower aide Kay Summersby,
pp. 546-47
37. Courtenays, Earls of Devon (and of Powderham Castle) to Lowells of Mass., p. 569
38. Anne Boleyn and Mamie Eisenhower, p. 588
39. James Oglethorpe’s sister Eleanor to the Kings of ltaly, pp. 613-14
40. Rudolf I, Holy Roman Emperor, founder of the Habsburgs, to Vladimir Nabokov, pp. 617 -18
41. Jean-Luc Godard and the Masaryks of Czechoslovakia, pp. 634-35
42 . The wife of Fritz Lang (Thea Harbou) and Claus von Billow, p. 645
43. Thoreau and the Duchess of Cornwall, p. 655
44. Charles VII Bonde, King of Sweden, to Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, pp. 662-63
45. Romanovs of Russia to Tolstoy and Mme. Blavatsky, pp. 791-96
46. Genghis Khan (only an alleged ancestor) and Byzantine emperors on chart with John Jacob and Vincent Astor, pp. 797-800
47. Peter Paul Rubens and Calverts of Maryland, pp. 804-5
48. Stracheys and “Signer” Caesar Rodney, pp. 824-25
49. De Graffenrieds of N.C. to First Lady Laura Welch Bush of Texas, pp. 832-33
50. Queen Jane Seymour, Edward VI, and Ludwells of Virginia, pp. 855-56
51. Napoleon I Bonaparte, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Warren G. Harding, pp. 858-59
52. Scottish Livingstons to Jackie Kennedy Onassis , pp. 914-15
53. Robert Goulet and Anna Paquin, pp. 973, 980, who share four generations of French-Canadian ancestry
54. Madonna and Chloe Sevigny, pp. 988-89, who share four generations of French-Canadian ancestry55. Sancha de Ayala, her American descendants and Che Guevara, pp. 993-97,passi
