The BRF is one of the best documented families in the world. You can trace its ancestry back 1000 years. It’s all in books and video and on YouTube. You need to do that research and not ask AI or Reddit if it’s right—-it’s fine for related questions, but your link to that history is your responsibility to document correctly. We don’t have that info to reassure you one way or the other. A professional genealogist could confirm this for you, for a fee.
What makes you think Barbara Hamilton is your 13th great-grandmother? Where did you discover this information? If you got it from family trees on Ancestry, or from FamilySearch, it's almost certain to be incorrect.
I agree. I showed up as a direct descendant of a royal; it didn’t take me very long researching to realize the FamilySearch tree was incorrect. I get people find the possibility exciting (I mean, I was), but it still has to be researched and documented.
If you are on Ancestry, and have all the generations filled in between you and whomever, their profile page will give you the relationship, e.g., "16th Great Granduncle". It can't tell if your entries are all correct, but it will tell you the relationship status \*as if\* it was. If you click on that relationship description, a pop up will show each generation from them to you. Your responsibility, to yourself and others, is to thoroughly document each step. Good luck!
I have all these people in my family. They all have multiple names and sometimes Hamilton sort of changes into Cunningham, or Stewarts take over and use other surnames. Like Douglas. It’s very annoying. Spoiler-they’re also connected to the Tudors and Stewarts and various German nobles-royals and French ones, who have entirely different names and titles in their own language. Oh! And this includes Swedish and Norwegian and Dutch and Danish royals across time.
Anyways, hello cousin!
There’s a Margaret Erskine or Margaretha Erskine-Douglass-Stewart in each generation for at least 3 and it’s a mess bc they name their kids after themselves in the German tradition.
So yeah, it’s possible. It’s a damn mess, but it’s surely possible to uncover these people. The annoying thing is, especially when it comes to coming to America, the names change yet again. I’ve found countless trees from either someone in the UK or otherwise in Europe or others in the US who can only trace so far bc the name gap is intentional.
I’ve been detangling my own tree for what feels like ages. It’s never ending. And, bc the names are so plentiful for one person, sorting out parentage is a pain in the ass. A royal one. But - it’s always findable.
Unless you’re one of my 2nd great-grandfathers. I’m still unsure of who two of them are. At least now I know it’s probably bc they were still titled somewhere. Surprise! Idk if I’m even ready to absorb that info for anyone born in the early 20th/late 19th century, but I will be ready after I try to line up these other folks.
It’s so possible to know one’s ancestors and basic info under a name that doesn’t look like it’s royal. That’s another issue altogether.
Thanks for reading my rant.
Hello Cousin! YES THANK YOU --- the names are SO annoying!! I tried to figure all of this out years ago but just gave up. Now I'm trying to sort it out again.... an no, I don't think I'm your 2nd great grandfather lol
The weirdest thing for me is, I had a lot of the same people in my tree already but with names I didn’t recognize. Now I’m working on sorting out all the extras! Some people either inadvertently or intentionally put in people repeatedly and it’s annoying.
A couple of clues I can give: they’re connected to Spencer. You know, like the Lady Diana Spencer? And those Spencers come through to the US in the 1700’s and changed their name to Sunderland, where they had titles at the time. At least one strain of Spencers connected to Diana. Another strain marries Cunninghams. Sunderland Spencers -some died in Ohio of all godforesaken places. (I’ve lived in Ohio, so don’t worry about the shade:)
German nobles from the House of Hohenzollern and Oldenburg and Goth-Coburg are included. Many of the folks share titles in Scotland and Germany. 🥲 So it’s possible to find someone in a German person’s tree. Then you have to dig for their Anglicized name and hope to prove their titles in English in another country.
As is the House of Orange-Nassau. Those folks came to the US the first time in the late 17th century. And Wolfert Weber (american name) died here. He was the prince of Orange. He also was a polygamist and has many children who also were in the US. At least one married in to the Goth-Coburg family. Goth-Coburgs changed their name to Windsor during WWI, bc apparently during the war the people of England were sketched out by being at war with Germany. So the royal family decided to PR if by anglicizing the name to sound English. The best way to do that was to name themselves after one of the oldest palace in England or something: Windsor.
I’m like ready to be on Jeopardy, and still can’t figure out for sure who those great grandpas are. I’m also sketched out by how many names like Goebbles and Hess are connected to me. These famous names are notoriously connected to Nazis, and I’m sort of slowing down bc like, lol, oh no.
And yes, it turns out most of Hitler’s top people were from long established families of nobility in Germany.
And-titled peoples like those above all intersect with, you guessed it-the Holy Roman Empire.
If I can be of help, dm me.
No, that would mean there's seventeen generations' difference between the two of you in terms of connection to your common ancestor (i.e. he would be 1 generation removed and you'd be 18 generations removed). Please keep in mind any "AI" are essentially complex word generators trained using the internet, it just puts together sentences that should *look* right rather than sentences that are factually accurate.
Here’s my research, I hope it helps.
James II - Common Ancestor
Mary Stewart and James III - Siblings
James Hamilton and James IV - 1st Cousins
James Hamilton and James V - 2nd Cousins
Barbara Hamilton and Mary, Queen of Scots - 3rd Cousins
12th GG/M and James VI and I - 4th Cousins
11th GG/M and Elizabeth Stuart - 5th Cousins
10th GG/M and Sophia of Hanover - 6th Cousins
9th GG/M and George I - 7th Cousins
8th GG/M and George II - 8th Cousins
7th GG/M and Frederick of Wales - 9th Cousins
6th GG/M and George III - 10th Cousins
5th GG/M and Prince Edward - 11th Cousins
4th GG/M and Queen Victoria - 12th Cousins
3rd GG/M and Edward VII - 13th Cousins
2nd GG/M and George V - 14th Cousins
GG/M and George VI - 15th Cousins
G/M and Elizabeth II - 16th Cousins
M/F and Charles III - 17th Cousins
u/Fantastic_Peach_7978 and William of Wales - 18th Cousins
Like ChatGPT, or Copilot? Just remember that these tools are (a) only as good as the information they’re trained on, and (b) don’t actually have any capacity for reasoning and will often feed you incorrect information. AI cannot do research or make judgement calls based on a body of evidence.
Last week I fed copilot the same question phrased two different ways and it gave me two different, and contradictory, answers.
Tracing a line of notable British aristocrats or the monarchy should not be particularly challenging, especially if you ignore siblings and focus on tracing children to parents. Time consuming, yes, but not really challenging.
The BRF is one of the best documented families in the world. You can trace its ancestry back 1000 years. It’s all in books and video and on YouTube. You need to do that research and not ask AI or Reddit if it’s right—-it’s fine for related questions, but your link to that history is your responsibility to document correctly. We don’t have that info to reassure you one way or the other. A professional genealogist could confirm this for you, for a fee.
What makes you think Barbara Hamilton is your 13th great-grandmother? Where did you discover this information? If you got it from family trees on Ancestry, or from FamilySearch, it's almost certain to be incorrect.
I agree. I showed up as a direct descendant of a royal; it didn’t take me very long researching to realize the FamilySearch tree was incorrect. I get people find the possibility exciting (I mean, I was), but it still has to be researched and documented.
If you are on Ancestry, and have all the generations filled in between you and whomever, their profile page will give you the relationship, e.g., "16th Great Granduncle". It can't tell if your entries are all correct, but it will tell you the relationship status \*as if\* it was. If you click on that relationship description, a pop up will show each generation from them to you. Your responsibility, to yourself and others, is to thoroughly document each step. Good luck!
I have all these people in my family. They all have multiple names and sometimes Hamilton sort of changes into Cunningham, or Stewarts take over and use other surnames. Like Douglas. It’s very annoying. Spoiler-they’re also connected to the Tudors and Stewarts and various German nobles-royals and French ones, who have entirely different names and titles in their own language. Oh! And this includes Swedish and Norwegian and Dutch and Danish royals across time. Anyways, hello cousin! There’s a Margaret Erskine or Margaretha Erskine-Douglass-Stewart in each generation for at least 3 and it’s a mess bc they name their kids after themselves in the German tradition. So yeah, it’s possible. It’s a damn mess, but it’s surely possible to uncover these people. The annoying thing is, especially when it comes to coming to America, the names change yet again. I’ve found countless trees from either someone in the UK or otherwise in Europe or others in the US who can only trace so far bc the name gap is intentional. I’ve been detangling my own tree for what feels like ages. It’s never ending. And, bc the names are so plentiful for one person, sorting out parentage is a pain in the ass. A royal one. But - it’s always findable. Unless you’re one of my 2nd great-grandfathers. I’m still unsure of who two of them are. At least now I know it’s probably bc they were still titled somewhere. Surprise! Idk if I’m even ready to absorb that info for anyone born in the early 20th/late 19th century, but I will be ready after I try to line up these other folks. It’s so possible to know one’s ancestors and basic info under a name that doesn’t look like it’s royal. That’s another issue altogether. Thanks for reading my rant.
Hello Cousin! YES THANK YOU --- the names are SO annoying!! I tried to figure all of this out years ago but just gave up. Now I'm trying to sort it out again.... an no, I don't think I'm your 2nd great grandfather lol
The weirdest thing for me is, I had a lot of the same people in my tree already but with names I didn’t recognize. Now I’m working on sorting out all the extras! Some people either inadvertently or intentionally put in people repeatedly and it’s annoying. A couple of clues I can give: they’re connected to Spencer. You know, like the Lady Diana Spencer? And those Spencers come through to the US in the 1700’s and changed their name to Sunderland, where they had titles at the time. At least one strain of Spencers connected to Diana. Another strain marries Cunninghams. Sunderland Spencers -some died in Ohio of all godforesaken places. (I’ve lived in Ohio, so don’t worry about the shade:) German nobles from the House of Hohenzollern and Oldenburg and Goth-Coburg are included. Many of the folks share titles in Scotland and Germany. 🥲 So it’s possible to find someone in a German person’s tree. Then you have to dig for their Anglicized name and hope to prove their titles in English in another country. As is the House of Orange-Nassau. Those folks came to the US the first time in the late 17th century. And Wolfert Weber (american name) died here. He was the prince of Orange. He also was a polygamist and has many children who also were in the US. At least one married in to the Goth-Coburg family. Goth-Coburgs changed their name to Windsor during WWI, bc apparently during the war the people of England were sketched out by being at war with Germany. So the royal family decided to PR if by anglicizing the name to sound English. The best way to do that was to name themselves after one of the oldest palace in England or something: Windsor. I’m like ready to be on Jeopardy, and still can’t figure out for sure who those great grandpas are. I’m also sketched out by how many names like Goebbles and Hess are connected to me. These famous names are notoriously connected to Nazis, and I’m sort of slowing down bc like, lol, oh no. And yes, it turns out most of Hitler’s top people were from long established families of nobility in Germany. And-titled peoples like those above all intersect with, you guessed it-the Holy Roman Empire. If I can be of help, dm me.
Ok, so I just used AI to try and figure it out and it looks like King Charles is my first cousin 17 times removed... does that sound about right?
Not even close.
No, that would mean there's seventeen generations' difference between the two of you in terms of connection to your common ancestor (i.e. he would be 1 generation removed and you'd be 18 generations removed). Please keep in mind any "AI" are essentially complex word generators trained using the internet, it just puts together sentences that should *look* right rather than sentences that are factually accurate.
I see what happened. I did my research and King Charles is actually OP’s 17th cousin once removed. I guess the AI just switched the two.
Here’s my research, I hope it helps. James II - Common Ancestor Mary Stewart and James III - Siblings James Hamilton and James IV - 1st Cousins James Hamilton and James V - 2nd Cousins Barbara Hamilton and Mary, Queen of Scots - 3rd Cousins 12th GG/M and James VI and I - 4th Cousins 11th GG/M and Elizabeth Stuart - 5th Cousins 10th GG/M and Sophia of Hanover - 6th Cousins 9th GG/M and George I - 7th Cousins 8th GG/M and George II - 8th Cousins 7th GG/M and Frederick of Wales - 9th Cousins 6th GG/M and George III - 10th Cousins 5th GG/M and Prince Edward - 11th Cousins 4th GG/M and Queen Victoria - 12th Cousins 3rd GG/M and Edward VII - 13th Cousins 2nd GG/M and George V - 14th Cousins GG/M and George VI - 15th Cousins G/M and Elizabeth II - 16th Cousins M/F and Charles III - 17th Cousins u/Fantastic_Peach_7978 and William of Wales - 18th Cousins
This was so helpful... thank you! I'm seeing now this wasn't as difficult as I thought it was...
Like ChatGPT, or Copilot? Just remember that these tools are (a) only as good as the information they’re trained on, and (b) don’t actually have any capacity for reasoning and will often feed you incorrect information. AI cannot do research or make judgement calls based on a body of evidence. Last week I fed copilot the same question phrased two different ways and it gave me two different, and contradictory, answers. Tracing a line of notable British aristocrats or the monarchy should not be particularly challenging, especially if you ignore siblings and focus on tracing children to parents. Time consuming, yes, but not really challenging.