The new Second Edition of The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or to the United States, by Gary Boyd Roberts, identifies 615 major historical figures who have royal ancestry. Does your family talk about an as yet unproven relationship to the English playwright Noel Coward? If you want to authenticate[…]Read more
(Read Part One | Part Two of this Article) IV. In addition to the descents outlined in the Coda for Garfield and Mrs. Arthur, several immigrants first treated in the Coda are also ancestors of presidents or First Ladies. Among those whose lines are “improved” (even if placed in the main text), are also ancestors[…]Read more
The new three-volume, Second Edition of The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States is remarkable in a number of respects. As we have noted previously, Mr. Roberts has added twenty-three new immigrants to the opus, revised the lines of twelve others, and made improvements to about half[…]Read more
Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, the 17th-century Puritan heretic and co-founder of Rhode Island, died in an Indian attack with several of her children only nine years after she arrived in America. Her surviving four children and the children of her sister Katherine (Marbury) Scott produced many descendants with royal or noble ancestors. For example, their American[…]Read more
The new Second Edition of The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States identifies 600 major historical figures in its 1,700+ pages. These celebrities range from W. H. Auden and Jane Austin to Thomas Mann and Karl Marx, and from John Kerry and Robert E. Lee to Aristotle[…]Read more
(Part One of this article can be found HERE) In early November 2022, various scholars learned of and purchased Weston Pedigree Reconsidered: A Review of Documentation Provided by the College of Arms (2022) by Shawn Henry Potter and Lois Carol Potter. In a much earlier form, parts of this monograph were submitted to the New[…]Read more
The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States (RD 900), 2nd Ed. (2022), genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts’ magnum opus, 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 Americans. Anyone descended from an[…]Read more
I have been gratified by Americans’ interest in The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States since its publication in 2018. I am surprised, however, at the response the work has received in Great Britain and continental Europe. The late Prince Phillip appears several times and, in addition[…]Read more
The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec or the United States. Second Edition, by Gary Boyd Roberts is remarkable in a number of ways. Obviously, it documents nearly 1,000 lines of North Americans who can claim royal ancestors—more than any other publication. The Introduction to this new three-volume edition is nearly[…]Read more
After the new edition of The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants went to press, HM Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain (see pp. 3, 4, 41, 321, 323, 546, 930, 1058, 1067, 1081, 1723) died 8 September 2022, aged 96. Her eldest son, HRH Prince Charles Philip Arthur George (now 73), previously Prince of Wales, became HM[…]Read more
The system of primogeniture, the medieval practice of passing down a title and its holdings to one’s eldest son (or daughter), accounts for the fact that many Americans have royal or noble ancestors. For example, the millions of descendants of the 970 immigrant ancestors discussed in the 2018 edition of Gary Boyd Roberts’ book, The[…]Read more
Readers familiar with Gary Boyd Roberts’ scholarship know that between 2004 and 2010, Mr. Roberts wrote smaller, earlier editions of his now magnum opus, The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States (2018). The earliest edition of the work covered the royal descents of 500 immigrants. Mr. Roberts[…]Read more
