Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, April 30, 2019
The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States. By Gary Boyd Roberts. Published by Genealogical Publishing Co. 2018. 1611 pages.
This is a remarkable compilation of genealogies of the descendants of British royalty who are themselves notable in some way or another. Notables considered for the book include those persons in the American National Biography, the Dictionary of American Biography, Who’s Who in America, Who Was Who in America, or the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. The notables were settlement and colony founders, nineteenth and twentieth century figures (such as Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin and Audrey Hepburn), politicians, authors, journalists, and diplomats, among others.
These volumes are successors to The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants and The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants.
Mr. Roberts examined printed genealogical sources for his own collection instead of record sources. Record sources would presumably be contained within the printed sources he cites.
The format presents the royal couple at the head of the list, with birth and death dates, and the marriage partner, followed by numbered lines of direct descent generations to the subject. For example:
1. Henry I, King of England, d. 1135 = Matilda of Scotland
2. (illegitimate by —– ) Robert of Caen, 1st Earl of Gloucester = Mable FitzHamon
3. …and so one through the successive generations to..:
28. (John) Calvin Coolidge (Jr.) (1872-1933), 30th U.S. President = Grace Anna Goodhue
The descent line genealogies take up 1026 pages. The index is 583 pages.
Beginning chapters are appendices where Mr. Roberts denotes special situations, such as:
- Appendix VII: 198 Immigrants Whose Royal Descent is Much Altered since RD500 or RD600
- Appendix VIII: Immigrants with “Caveats”, Some Aspect of Whose Royal Descent Merits Further Investigation
- Appendix IX: Speculative Descents (Immigrants for Whom a Line from Kings, not simply Gentry Ancestry, has been Suggested but is Unproved or Seems Perhaps Problematic: A List [of 24] with Bibliography and Comments).
Mr. Roberts is the Senior Research Scholar Emeritus for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. He is a native Texan, and graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago. He’s authored Ancestors of American Presidents, Notable Kin (2 volumes), and a column on the royal ancestry of Meghan Markle (https://www.americanancestors.org/Royal-Ancestry-of-Meghan-Markle.aspx).
These extraordinary editions represent decades of the author’s work and research.
Kudos to his dedication and perseverance seeing it through.
The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States. Volume I and Volume II may be purchased from the publisher, Genealogical Publishing Co., HERE.
The two volumes also may be ordered from Amazon as two separate orders at:
