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I recently found out that I am perhaps a 20th great granddaughter of Edward III. I don’t put a lot of stock in these things, but it’s still fun. I’m wondering how many living grandchildren would he have now? I’m sure it’s pretty impossible to tell, but I’m wondering if I should have myself fitted for a new tiara.
lol
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Tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, depending on family sizes, fertility rates, mortality rates, etc.
For perspective, we technically have 1.05 million 20th great grandparents. In reality the number is fewer, as very many of them would be the same people by that point.
Thanks! I tried looking it up, but all I could find was the answer that almost anyone with British roots is related to royalty in some way. I didn’t know if this meant cousins or direct decendants or what. Still fun to know!
Something like a hundred million, probably, and likely at least fifty million in the USA alone. People had large families in the past, and it doesn't take too many generations of 10 kids who each have 10 kids who each have 10 kids etc to get into seriously large numbers. Some 17th century colonial immigrants to north America have hundreds of thousands of descendants.
The great grandfather that the line runs through had 91 first cousins. My Grandmother’s mom told her “Never marry a Timmons.”.