The Surprising Truth of Royal DNA

Is There a King in Your Family Tree? The Truth About Royal DNA

An unexpectedly large quantity of individuals can trace their lineage to aristocrats. The question remains, however, if their genetic material holds sufficient evidence for even a remote assertion of royal succession. Modern genetics, combined with old-fashioned genealogical research, is providing some astonishing answers and revealing how interconnected humanity truly is. The journey to uncover these regal connections often starts in the most unexpected of places, blending historical detective work with cutting-edge science.

A Monarch Under the Tarmac

Joy Ibsen, a retired journalist from Canada, was a passionate amateur genealogist. She meticulously followed her family’s history all the way to the 1300s by examining digital census data, along with birth and marriage certificates. Despite her thorough research, a crucial detail escaped her notice. In 2004, a historian from Britain reached out to her. The research identified her as a relative of Richard III, the final Plantagenet ruler of England. Following her death, her son, Michael Ibsen, became central to a remarkable investigation.

The Leicester Discovery

In 2012, researchers unearthed what they believed were the bones of Richard III beneath a car park located in Leicester. To verify the identity of the deceased ruler, they used a saliva sample from Ibsen. His DNA contained the specific genetic markers originating from that monarchical lineage. He explained that they had no prior knowledge of their involvement in the discovery of the monarch's body. He clarified that the lineage wasn't direct; instead, their family tree connected through the monarch's sister's female side, making the king essentially a great-uncle separated by 17 generations.

A Moment of Reflection

For Michael Ibsen, a 66-year-old carpenter and furniture-maker who lives in North London, the entire situation felt like an incredible chance event. As he looked upon the bones of his forebear before its 2015 reburial ceremony inside Leicester Cathedral, he pondered the sheer unlikelihood of the situation. He said the thing that truly amazed him was considering how many individuals must have their origins in the family of Richard III. He acknowledged, however, that he was among a very small group who shared actual, tangible genetic material with him, which he felt made the experience significantly more profound.

Image  Credit - by Office of the Governor-General, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Celebrity Royal Connections

More recently, famous shows on television have featured numerous famous people uncovering their own remote noble ties. Brooke Shields, an actress, got to know that she had French royalty in her lineage. Cindy Crawford, a supermodel, is a faraway relative of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks. Actresses Hilary Duff and Uma Thurman are distantly related to the British royal family. Bob Odenkirk, an American actor famous for his part in Better Call Saul, also recently learned he is distantly related to the current monarch, King Charles III.

Hollywood's Noble Blood

The list of celebrities with regal roots continues to grow, revealing the interconnectedness of historical lineages. Actor Brad Pitt, for instance, has lineage tracing to King Henry II of England, making him a distant cousin to the late Queen Elizabeth II. Angelina Jolie shares this royal connection to Henry II and also traces her ancestry to French King Philip II. Even music royalty like Beyoncé has a documented link back to Henry II. These discoveries highlight how family trees can stretch across continents and centuries, linking today's icons with figures from the distant past.

The Mathematics of Your Ancestry

So, what are the chances that you also possess some monarchical heritage concealed within your lineage? The answer is, surprisingly, almost certainly yes. The only variable is the number of centuries you must explore to uncover it. While this may seem astonishing, it is vital to understand that your ancestral chart expands at an exponential rate as you travel further into the past. The number of your ancestors doubles with each generation, growing from two parents to four grandparents, and then to eight great-grandparents.

Exponential Growth and Royal Odds

These figures then balloon dramatically. To put this into perspective, if you go back twenty-five generations, it means you have over 33 million individual forebears. Considering that global populations were much smaller at that time—for instance, in 1200 AD, the world had between 360 and 450 million inhabitants—the likelihood of royalty appearing in that expansive family network increases significantly. This mathematical reality means that almost everyone with deep roots in a particular region will eventually discover a connection with its historical ruling class.

The Ancestral Paradox

This exponential growth leads to a fascinating paradox. Venturing sufficiently deep into the past, the number of your theoretical ancestors exceeds the count of people who were alive on Earth at that time. The solution is a concept known as "pedigree collapse". This occurs when relatives, even distant cousins, have children together, causing ancestors to appear in multiple places on your ancestral chart. Instead of an ever-expanding tree, your ancestry begins to look more like a web, with lines folding back on themselves and connecting in unexpected ways.

We Are All Descended from Charlemagne

Because of pedigree collapse, specialists figure that any ruler with a decent number of children who was alive approximately a millennium ago is likely the forebear of a vast segment of today's population. Charlemagne is a frequent example. He lived between 747 and 814, consolidated the majority of Europe, had more than ten wives, and produced 18 children. Although conclusive evidence is elusive, many have posited that the bulk of modern Europeans are his descendants. This makes him a common ancestor for a huge number of individuals.

A Universal Human Family

This principle extends globally. In a similar vein, a large portion of people in Asia may have the Chinese thinker Confucius as an ancestor. During the last two thousand years, factors like migration, invasions, and colonization have so intertwined human lineages that computer models offer a provocative prediction. They suggest the nearest shared forebear for every person alive today existed sometime from 1400 BC up to the year 55 AD. This underscores the profound, shared heritage of all humanity, connecting a group that includes everyone from monarchs to bricklayers.

Genealogy Versus Genetics

However, being remotely descended from aristocrats is a completely separate issue from possessing a concrete biological connection to a monarch from a long-gone era. A genealogical relationship is not the same as sharing genetic material. Situations like Ibsen’s are exceptionally uncommon since we only have shared genetics with a very small portion of our ancestors. Each letter of a person’s genetic composition is composed of the genetic material from one's parents, grandparents, and even more distant relatives, but the inheritance is not evenly distributed.

The Dilution of DNA

Beyond the sixth ancestral generation, the quantity of genetic substance inherited from people who were alive centuries ago becomes incredibly minuscule. It's probable that every individual in Britain, not including recent immigrants, would descend from the royal figures who lived a millennium ago. However, the chance of carrying any of their genetic material is exceedingly remote. To demonstrate this, figures for Edward I demonstrate that while he could have a vast number of descendants on paper living today, only a tiny fraction—approximately 5 out of every 10,000 individuals, or 0.05%—would probably possess any DNA from him.

Unbroken Genetic Lines

So who are these fortunate few? Inherited DNA is typically passed along what genealogy experts call "continuous paternal or maternal lineages." One specific kind of genetic information, mitochondrial DNA, is found in the small, energy-producing structures within our cells. This type is handed down exclusively through the maternal lineage. An individual receives it from their mother, who received it from her mother, and so on for centuries. Although sons receive their mother's mitochondrial DNA, they cannot transmit it; this ability is exclusive to daughters. Ibsen’s mitochondrial DNA was the key to identifying Richard III, as his mother belonged to an unbroken female line that extended 700 years, connecting to the king's sister.

The Father's Genetic Legacy

The Y chromosome, which guides the development of male reproductive traits, is likewise transmitted through continuous paternal lines. These two DNA types are passed down virtually without alteration, and this can continue for hundreds or even thousands of years. This stability makes them powerful tools for tracing specific lineages deep into the past. However, if an individual's own ancestral path includes a combination of male and female links, the probability of inheriting specific DNA from a distant ancestor like Edward I becomes almost zero.

Tracing Famous Figures

Y chromosomes have been especially useful in attempts to forge genetic connections between current families and renowned historical individuals. For example, long-standing rumors suggested that America's third president, Thomas Jefferson, had children with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman. Genetic analysis has subsequently shown that some of the male descendants of Hemings carry a matching Y chromosome from the Jefferson line, providing strong evidence supporting the historical accounts of their relationship.

The Prolific Emperor Gene

Since a man's Y chromosome has a higher chance of being passed down if he and his male children father many offspring, some have speculated that certain Y chromosomal patterns prevalent in today's populations came from especially prolific kings or emperors. A notable example is a sequence found in about 1.5 million men across northern China and Mongolia, which has been connected to Giocangga, a Qing Dynasty ruler from the 1500s who reportedly had numerous wives and concubines, ensuring a widespread genetic legacy.

The Shadow of Genghis Khan

The most intriguing speculation of all surrounds the infamous founder of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan. A genetic study from 2003 pinpointed a particular Y-DNA signature originating roughly 1,000 years ago during his reign. This sequence is so widespread that approximately one out of 200 men globally carries it. Although confirming this link is impossible since Khan's burial location is unknown, the theory is considered credible by many geneticists.

A Legacy of Conquest

It is believed that he and his male descendants sired countless offspring, often through the assault of women in territories they overran. This brutal method of spreading their lineage could explain the high frequency of this specific Y chromosome. While later studies suggest the lineage may predate Khan or belong to other Mongol warriors, the story highlights how power and conquest can leave a lasting genetic footprint on entire populations for centuries.

The Business of Royal Blood

Some businesses are now trying to leverage this interest in possible royal lineage through Y chromosome sequencing. For instance, the genetic testing firm from China, 23Mofang, claims it can tell customers if they have genetic material from emperors in China's past. They suggest, for example, that nearly 25.3 million Chinese people have a genetic connection to the founder of the Han dynasty, who ruled two millennia and two centuries ago. However, experts advise skepticism when companies make such connections to individuals who were alive a very long time ago.

A Word of Caution

When the target ancestor was alive over two millennia in the past, establishing a direct lineage is exceptionally hard. For instance, among Jewish individuals with priestly heritage, a particular signature on the Y chromosome is heavily concentrated. This does not prove that everyone with this sequence descends from certain biblical characters. These tests can identify ancient ancestral groups, or haplogroups, but they cannot definitively link a modern individual to a specific historical person without more direct evidence.

Finding Your Gateway Ancestor

As for how deep into history an ordinary person might need to search to uncover a connection to royalty, the 1500s is likely the earliest period, unless the family already has a known history of noble connections. Genealogists often look for "gateway ancestors". These are people of aristocratic birth who married into a lower class, causing their social standing to diminish over generations. Finding such a person is often the link to monarchy because of the extensive intermarriage among the aristocratic and monarchical families of Europe during the medieval period.

A Life Changed by DNA

For Michael Ibsen, knowing he has Richard III in his ancestry has permanently altered his life. Yet, he mentioned that he feels no special bond with King Charles III and Queen Camilla. He noted that the Windsors come from an entirely separate lineage than Richard III, adding they are partially German, so a connection doesn't really exist. However, he said that many people ask him about it. He recalled a man who worked at a garage near his workshop who would consistently and seriously ask him why the palace had not invited him.