I would like to say Hello.

[Hollywood]

No Robert, I'm not joking. Last summer I started working more in detail on my family tree, especially regarding my maternal grandmother's father's side. I already had data going back to my 4 times great grandfather who was a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, but I wanted to know more about when my ancestors first arrived in America. It was through this research that I discovered that my 10 times great grandfather was Sir Oliver Cromwell (the uncle of the Lord Protector) who ended up being just the tip of the iceberg. He led me to the discovery that my 27 times great grandfather was William the Conqueror. Needless to say Pandora's Box was now open and I discovered that I am descended from so many kings of England, France, Scotland, Hungary, the Habsburg's, etc., that I still can't get my head around it all. After I started to make these discoveries my mother then tells me that her mother told her years ago that "We are descended from royalty". My mother never mentioned this to me before and I now think that she didn't believe her mom at the time. She now realizes that her mom was right all along. It's ashame that none of that royal wealth, titles or land ever made its way down to my generation.   

[Roberto]

...

Wow! And did this knowledge change your life? You wrote when you come to Vienna you felt you come home but any other thing? Is it only an interesting fact or can you rely on it in your life?

[Hollywood]

Wow! And did this knowledge change your life? You wrote when you come to Vienna you felt you come home but any other thing? Is it only an interesting fact or can you rely on it in your life?

Knowing that I am descended from royalty hasn't really changed my life. I do wonder at times how my life would have been if I did inherit any of my ancestor's titles, land and wealth. I still am trying to get my head around all of this information, but I am proud of what some of my royal ancestors achieved.

I have been living here in Vienna now for almost 18 years and I still feel that I have come home. When I was a kid I fell in love with Austria's history, culture, landscape and the fact that it is the classical music capital of the world. Beethoven and Mozart have always been my two favorite composers and what better city to live in than Vienna. It's a dream come true for this SoCal gal. 

[AllegroVivace]

27 times great grandfather...

You can't be serious talking about this kind of thing. 27 times great grand grandmother. With this projection, anyone would be related to anyone.

[Hollywood]

You can't be serious talking about this kind of thing. 27 times great grand grandmother. With this projection, anyone would be related to anyone.

Perhaps, but at least being able to have access to the data comes in handy. I use many genealogy sites, including my favorites Ancestry.com and Rootsweb.com. You have to be lucky that there are some distant cousins who have posted their research on these sites that will help you in your own family tree searches. Sometimes you can only get little or no data that maybe  goes back only as far as your great grandparents. But if you are lucky like I have been, I was able to go back even further than any of my 27 times great grandparents. So if you have the needed data (like birth dates and places as well as dates of death, etc.) on your family that goes back and includes your great grandparents, then you may be lucky to find data that goes back further generations. I was just so lucky that there is so much genealogy data on my maternal grandmother's father's family.

Since I am a member of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) you have to show proof of lineal, bloodline descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving American Independence as well as showing documentation for each statement of birth, marriage and death, as well as of the Revolutionary War service. With this data I had a great start on going further back into my family tree and through this I have been able to go back even further than William the Conqueror. It can be a lot of work but in my case it was well worth it indeed.

[AllegroVivace]

Pretty impressive. I wish everyone was required to submit their geological information. It would be a perfect way to find out just how significant genes are.