2009

• Ryan Tubridy was shocked to discover he descends from Edward III. It may be some comfort to his Irish nationalist beliefs to learn he also descends (through the House of York) from Brian Boru.

• Contrary to the program, Rosanna Davison does not descend from the half-brother of William the Conqueror. However she does descend from William the Conqueror himself many times over. In fact, she descends from James IV, King of Scotland and from Edward III.

• Royal Descents of famous people

Ryan Tubridy descends from Brian Boru.

Rosanna Davison descends from Edward III.

2008

• Barack Obama descends from Edward III.
• Joe Biden has no known Royal Descent.
• John McCain descends from Edward I.
• Sarah Palin descends from Edward I.

• George W. Bush descends from Edward III.
• Dick Cheney descends from Edward I.

• The "Bush and Strongbow" controversy
• The "McCain and Robert the Bruce" controversy

Henry Noltie.

• Stanger
• Berwick
• Blundy

• Wells
• Ruffles

After my father's death, I got serious about solving the Blennerhassett problem before my time ran out. Dad was always interested in this problem, but he never got to see the solution.

• The Blennerhassett problem

• Blennerhassett Blog

My father, with whom I went on family tree research trips for 25 years, died of a sudden and unexpected illness on 27 Feb 2008. His family is heartbroken. He was a great father. I was very close to him.

Good bye, Dad.

• Memorial page

Dad in 2006.

Full 55 minute video of the drama-documentary The Struggle (2003)
about the Free State raid on 36 Ailesbury Rd in 1922.

2007

Lost portrait of Augustus Reebkomp
hanging in Gibbon home, 1913.

Arthur Gibbon.

2006

Quinsborough House.

The old Rahilly house, Ballylongford.

James O'Mara and Agnes Cashel.

The Associated Press newswire service quotes me in two articles by Matt Crenson, released July 1, 2006, and carried in many places:

1. Article on Royal Descents, carried in many places with many titles, such as The Washington Post, Newsweek, Forbes, CBS News, Fox News, ABC News, MSNBC and CTV.

2. Article on CAs, carried in many places with many titles, such as Wired, Forbes, USA Today, The Boston Globe, San Diego Union-Tribune, Deseret News, Fox News, CBS News, CBS 4 TV and WBZ TV.

   Crenson nicely phrases how we only need one ancestor to be physically descended from someone. That genealogy is not the pursuit of broad patterns (like genetics). Genealogy is the pursuit of statistical artefacts. "Though people like to think of culture, language and religion as barriers between groups, history is full of religious conversions, intermarriages, illegitimate births and adoptions across those lines. ... "And the thing is, you only need one," said Mark Humphrys, ... One ancestral link to another cultural group among your millions of forbears, and you share ancestors with everyone in that group. So everyone who reproduced with somebody who was born far from their own natal home - every sailor blown off course, every young man who set off to seek his fortune, every woman who left home with a trader from a foreign land - as long as they had children, they helped weave the tight web of brotherhood we all share."

Why We're All Jesus' Children, Steve Olson, Slate, March 15, 2006:

• He references me in the sidebar.
• Olson points out that The Da Vinci Code does not understand genealogy: "no matter how the court case turns out, both books are confused. If anyone living today is descended from Jesus, so are most of us on the planet."
• He criticises DNA studies, which - by focusing on male-male or female-female lines only - make people look less connected than they really are: "The risk of today's genetic genealogy tests is that they tend to divide people into groups, whereas the real message that emerges from genealogy is one of connections. ... People may like to think that they're descended from some ancient group while other people are not. But human ancestry doesn't work that way".

2005

As a result, since 2005 I have made huge progress on the family tree and getting it all online.

2003-2004

I am quoted in a Nature news feature (copied here) on the paper [Rohde et al., 2004]. I speculate: "Looking at the whole sweep of the Americas, Europe, Asia, right across to Japan, I wouldn't be surprised if we had a common ancestor in the AD years." Note that it slightly misquotes me that: "A single prolific parent can have a vast influence". The original parent doesn't actually have to be prolific. All they need to have is 2 children to be a MRCA.

My wife's family, Gibbon, descends from the 10th Earl of Pembroke through his illegitimate son Augustus Reebkomp. Reebkomp's daughter married Arthur Gibbon in 1814, and from them the Gibbon family descends.

Burke's Peerage was first published in 1826, and for 177 years their entry for PEMBROKE excluded the Gibbon line because it was illegitimate.

When Burke's Peerage was re-launched in 1999, they said they would include illegitimate lines, so I contacted them in 2000. Due to my research, in the next edition in 2003 I managed to get Gibbon into Burke's Peerage. They had been excluded from it for 177 years.

Gibbon now appears under PEMBROKE
in [Burke's Peerage, 2003].

Later I discovered that Gibbon had already appeared under
KERR of The Haie in [Burkes Landed Gentry, 1886].

2000-2002

• The Europeans, Radio National, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), brief interview, 11 Nov, broadcast 15th Dec 2002. The audio link is not working.

  
  

• See a hilarious reference to this in Opinion Journal (copied here) from The Wall Street Journal, 25 Nov 2002, in a discussion of "post-traumatic slavery disorder" and the universal victimhood (and guilt!) of our ancestors. The readers' suggestions here, with their laid-back approach to crimes committed against their ancestors, is exactly how I think people should think about ancestry - instead of nursing ancient grievances like children.

  
  

• The Todd Mundt Show, National Public Radio, 4 minute interview, 6 June, broadcast 28 June 2002. Formerly here: at 28 minutes in.

"The Connection" (see home page), with Dick Gordon, National Public Radio, 2 July 2002, had a 1 hour live discussion with me and Steve Olson.

I thought this went well, except one point: A caller to the show asked how this related to all of humanity descending from the sons of Noah, or some such nonsense. I did not want to waste the show discussing creationism and biblical literalism, so I just ignored it. Anyway, for the record, no, it does not relate to the sons of Noah after the Flood, since no such people existed and no such event ever took place.

I am interviewed in "The Royal We" by Steve Olson, May 2002 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. See also interview with Olson.

• Dick Eastman column, 19 June 2002 (or via here).
• Greg Hill column, 2 June 2003.
• Steve Cook, May 25, 2004: "If Mark Humphrys is right, a thousand secret kings walk down every city street, untroubled by the weight of their crowns."