My Plantagenet ancestry
So, yeah, William the Conqueror is my 28th-great-grandfather.
I’m a direct descendant of the the House of Plantagenet. Where are my lands, my title, my throne? William the Conqueror was my 28-great-grandfather! In fact, there are multiple monarchs in my ancestry, including King Edward III (my 20th-great-grandfather). I’m even related to the current heir to the throne, because Princess Diana was my 20th cousin 4x removed.
Over 25% of people in Britain are descended from William the Conqueror, according to some estimates. Looks like I’m one of them, through my father’s mother’s line, a Plantagenet (originally “Plante genet”). Those medieval royals were multiplying like rabbits! There are powerful features on the Ancestry website, most of all DNA ThruLines (find trees containing relatives based on their DNA tests), Member Tree Hints (fills in gaps in your tree from other trees), and public records hints (finds birth certificates, marriage certificates and census records for people in your tree). The small blue symbols on people in my Ancestry.co.uk tree are my DNA ThruLines relations in public trees containing members with whom I am genetically related (on the basis that we share a significant percentage of DNA markers).
On my mother’s side, I’m directly descended from Sir William Marshal (my 24th-great-grandfather), the leading Magna Carta baron. So, when the Magna Carter was signed, the king who signed it was a direct ancestor of my father, while the leading noble who made him sign it was a direct ancestor of my mother. My paternal and maternal ancestors on two different both sides of the same table when the first bill of human rights was signed. Isn’t history amazing!
When my great uncle Alexander (“Alec”) Acheson started our family genealogy research in the 1970s, he had to physically visit local record offices in person, and read through the pages by hand! My dad always hoped somebody would continue his research. Old Alec could never have dreamed that the process would become so easy, or this fun.
Here’s a screenshot showing part of my Plantagenet family-tree on Ancestry.com:
For reference, a plain-text output of my Plantagenet lineage descending from William the Conqueror:
- William the Conqueror 1028-1087 (my 28th great-grandfather)
- King Henry I of England “Beauclerc” King of England (4th son of William the Conqueror) 1068-1135
- Empress Matilda “Holy Roman Empress” 1102-1167
- King Henry II Curtmantle (aka “FitzEmpress” or “Plantagenet”) King of England (1st adopter of Plantagenet name) 1133-1189
- King John of England King of England (formerly Duke of Normandy) – youngest surviving son of King Henry II 1166-1216
- King Henry III of England (formerly “of Winchester”) King of England 1207-1272
- King Edward I “Longshanks” King of England 1239-1307
- Edward II Caernarfon King of England, Lord of Ireland 1284-1327
- King Edward III of England (Edward Windsor, House of Plantagenet) King of England, Lord of Ireland 1312-1377
- Edmund of Langley 1st Duke of York, KG (House of Plantagenet by Birth) 1341-1402
- Richard of Conisburgh 3rd Earl of Cambridge (father of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (grandfather of King Edward IV and King Richard III) 1385-1415
- Richard Plantagenet 3rd Duke of York 1411-1460
- George Plantagenet Duke of Clarence 1449-1478
- Margaret Pole Countess of Salisbury 1473-1541
- Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montague, 2rd Earl of Huntington, (Member of the Royal Household of Henry VIII, Steward of the Manor, Justice of One of the Peers who convicted Anne Boleyn. Committed to the tower and beheaded. 1492-1539
- Lady Katherine (Catherine) de la Pole, Countess of Huntingdon, Fortescue Hastings Swift ^ 1511-1576
- Lady Elizabeth Hastings / Countess of Worcester 1546-1621
- Christian Lady (Cooke) de Beaufort Somerset (Plantagenet line) 1586-1614
- Edwardi Tarrant 1610-1656
- Margret Tarrant 1643-1712
- William Brackstone 1680-1728 (Plantagenet line)
- Mary Brackstone 1712-1753
- John Goddard 1749-1806
- John Goddard 1775-1849
- Elizabeth Goddard 1802-1895
- Lucy Wiltshire 1826-1901
- Charles Winchcombe 1867-1941
- Herbert Charles Winchcombe 1890-1967
- Winifred May Winchcombe 1920-2008
- Keith Alan Acheson 1950-2018
- Timothy Vernon Acheson (Me)
From the archive: this post was imported from the previous version of this website, the original version is also archived in the Internet Archive. (Original full-sized family tree screenshot archived here.)