From Genealogy to Humility to Universal Connection

Growing up, we had been told that we had “sang bleu”—“blue blood”—and that in our ancestry, on my mother’s side, there was a Marquis (the poor man was guillotined during the French Revolution…).

So when I started building my family tree and, many branches later, I found our nobility ancestry, I felt… a little special. I considered asking my husband to refer to me as “Your Highness”.

However, as I climbed higher and higher in my tree, I began finding more and more people sharing the same noble ancestors!… one of them being… my own husband!

Well… there went my uniqueness and my title.

Ah, life and its little humbling moments…

But what did it bring me?
A whole range of emotions — curiosity, excitement, surprise… and ultimately, humility.

And something even more powerful: the deep realization that we are all connected.

Now I smile when someone tells me,
“All my family is from America. Everyone.”

And the person has fair skin, freckles, blue eyes and red hair. (You can almost see the reflection of the Irish flag in their eyes, and you can’t wait to start digging into their genealogy!)

I can’t help but think…
That story might go back a little further than you think.

I had another conversation, this time in France. I mentioned to a friend that she might descend from a noble family I had been researching. She immediately replied:

“No. My family is very modest. We don’t have any noble ancestors—I know that for a fact.”

So I asked her, gently:
“How far back do you go?”

She knew her grandparents… and a little about the lives of her great-grandparents. And yes, they had lived modestly.

But genealogy has a way of stretching far beyond what we think we know.

Did you know?

Each generation doubles your number of ancestors. By the year 1500, you theoretically have millions of ancestors. If each one of us had different ancestors, that would be far more than the population at the time.

Which means… many of us share the same ancestors.

If you’ve explored your family history back to the 1500s or earlier, you’ve probably noticed something fascinating: not that everyone was noble — but that noble lines, because they are better documented, often appear in many family trees.

Discovering you descend from famous individuals

When you join your own family to famous individuals who left a lasting mark in History, you tear up and get goosebumps… at least I do!

Take for instance the day I discovered I descend from Guillaume le Conquérant, Duc de Normandie (William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy).

At first, my reaction was:
“Wow… I descend from William the Conqueror!”

Now, it’s:

“Wow… I descend from William the Conqueror —
who transformed England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066,
built so many monuments, such as the White Tower in London,
commissioned the Domesday Book,
and even shaped the English language through the influence of Norman French.”

William the Conqueror (1027-1087) and his wife Mathilde de Flandre (1032-1083) are the common ancestors for millions of people today, including the British Royal Family.

(the above links take you to the corresponding pages on my Geneanet tree)