ROYALANCESTRY.ORG

Americans of Royal and Noble Ancestry

There are a number of books and articles that have been published on existing and new royal lines. Some of these sources are:

  • Richardson, Douglas. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004
  • Weis, Frederick Lewis. Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 7th ed., 1995
  • Marston Watson has authored a Royal Families series, similar in scope to the well-known Mayflower Families publications. Each volume of Royal Families will cover the first five generations of the immigrant ancestor and his or her American descendants, whose royal line has been established in the current edition (1999) of Plantagenet Ancestry by David Faris. His books will be thoroughly documented with available primary evidence, which in most cases will be the vital birth, marriage and death records of each descendant. The documented evidence provided by the co-authors in the Royal Families books allows prospective members of the National Societies of Royal and Noble Ancestry to reference the published proofs in their membership application. In many cases, the fifth generation of the immigrant royal ancestor will be or have a direct connection to a Revolutionary War patriot.
  • Published volumes are:
    • Royal Families: Governor Thomas Dudley, Second Edition, 2004, Genealogical Publishing Company.

      Are you a descendant of Thomas Dudley (1576-1653), Governor or Assistant Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630-1653?

      Possibly a million or more Americans are directly related to this colonial governor, but have not yet made that connection. The list of over 3,800 names covers only the first five generations of Governor Thomas Dudley's descendants. There are generations of more Americans who can claim his royal and noble ancestry. See if you are one of them.

    • Royal Families: Rev. Francis Marbury (vo)l. 2). Reverend Francis Marbury and Five Generations of the Descendants Through Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson and Katherine (Marbury) Scott.
      Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, declared among some in her seventeenth-century world as a religious “heretic,” defied many of the most powerful men in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, including Governor Thomas Dudley, in defense of her strong beliefs. She endured a “trial by fire,” without benefit of a jury of her peers, in a highly charged court where these men challenged and mocked her views on religion. Her banishment from Salem and Boston drove her to a new colony called Rhode Island, which her mentor and friend Roger Williams co-founded.

      Thousands of Americans can claim the Marbury family’s lineal connections to their royal and noble ancestry, from William the Conqueror through Edward I. These ancestors include John, King of England, who signed the Magna Carta in 1215 at Runnymede, as well as many of the barons who witnessed his signature on that famous document. All later kinds of Spain, Holy Roman and Austrian emperors, most later English and French kinds, all kings of Prussia and Russian czars, beginning with Alexander I, are distant cousins as well.
    • Royal Families: Hon. Samuel Appleton, Esq. (vol. 3) Samuel Appleton and His Wife Judith Everard and Five Generations of Their Descendants.
      Thousands of Americans are direct descendants of Samuel Appleton (1586-1670) of Ipswich, Massachusetts, who had royal and noble connections to William the Conqueror, and of his wife Judith Everard, whose ancestors included William’s sister Adelaide, as well as Louis IV, King of the Franks. Following the format of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, this third volume of Marston Watson’s Royal Families series covers five generations (with their sixth generation children) of Samuel and Judith Appleton descendants, carrying them up to the period of the Revolutionary War and beyond.
    • Royal Families: Thomas West (Lord de la Warr) (vol. 4) Thomas West, Lord de la Warr and his descendants in America.
      The fourth and concluding volume in Marston Watson’s Americans of Royal and Noble Ancestry series is by far the most ambitious. Almost double the size of the second longest book in the series, the Pelham-Avery-West volume traces a full nine generations of descendants of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr. Unlike the earlier books, the progeny identified in Volume Four are associated not only with New England but with four distinct colonial regions: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Long Island (and later greater New York), and Virginia (with expansion to the Deep South). Finally, and unexpectedly, Thomas West descendants’ may be able to claim a kinship to England’s most notorious king, Henry VIII (1491-1547).

All publications are available at Genealogical Publishing Co.

Copyright © 2023. All Rights Reserved.