My family tree - Royal Descent

My Royal Descent

Royal Descents are not as unusual as you might think. In the West, your family tree tends to either (a) end in obscurity after a few generations, or (b) goes on to connect with the vast, inter-connected web of medieval gentry, nobility, and eventually Royalty, in Europe. There is basically a single vast Western family tree from which millions of people are provably descended. And then vast numbers of tiny islands.

You are either provably connected to the Western family tree or you are not. Showing your descent from medieval Royalty is probably the most convenient way of showing your connection to the Western family tree.

My wife has many Royal Descents.
See Royal Descents of hundreds of famous people.
I have written on what is the point of genealogy and what is the point of Royal Descents.

The discovery of my Blennerhassett Descent

This is in fact the golden age of genealogy, when you can be born without a Royal Descent, set off to look for one, and finally, triumphantly, connect with the Western family tree. In the future, everyone will have a known Royal Descent at birth, which won't be half as much fun.

This is exactly my story. Starting in 1985, I became aware that my Blennerhassett line might connect to the Western family tree. For decades I gathered evidence, but could not solve it.
In 2020, after clues from documents were followed, DNA testing finally proved that my family descends from the Blennerhassett Baronets family.
See Proof of our descent from Blennerhassett for the details.
To be precise, I call it as proved that my ancestor George Cashel (born 1807) descends from Robert Blennerhassett (died 1765) and his wife Frances Yielding. Nothing else explains the DNA.
That we descend from this family is proven, but the exact descent is unproven. It is something irregular, like a natural child. It remains to prove the exact descent from paper, to confirm from paper records what the DNA says must exist.

Since the descent from Robert Blennerhassett is certain, this gives me a Royal Descent. The most recent English monarch I descend from is Edward III (died 1377).

Edward III (died 1377).
The most recent English monarch that I descend from.

The descent of George Cashel

As explained above, the DNA and other evidence says we must descend from Robert Blennerhassett and Frances Yielding. Within that family, there are multiple lines that could lead to us and still explain the DNA and documents. But the DNA says there must be some descent from Robert Blennerhassett and Frances Yielding.

We do not know for sure if the descent is through George Cashel's father or mother. The research continues, to figure out the exact descent.

Dates of birth (known or estimated) are added, except in the section where that would be too complex.


                               Edward III (born 1312)
                                |
                 +--------------+----------------------------------------+ 
                 |                                                       |
                John of Gaunt                                           Edmund Plantagenet
                 |                                                       |
                Joan de Beaufort                                        Constance Plantagenet       
                 |                                                       |
      +----------+-------------------------------+                      Isabel le Despencer
      |                                          |                       |
     1st Earl of Salisbury                      3rd Baron Abergavenny   Elizabeth Beauchamp
      |                                          |                       |
     Alice Neville                               +----------+------------+
      |                                                     |
     Elizabeth Fitz-Hugh                                   4th Baron Abergavenny
      |                                                     |
     Catherine Vaux                                        Sir Edward Neville, Kt.
      |                                                     |
     Clement Throckmorton                                  Catherine Neville
      |                                                     |
      +--------------+--------------------------------------+
                     |
                    Martha Throckmorton (born 1551)
                     |
                    George Lynne (born c.1570)
                     |
                    Martha Lynne (born c.1601) == John Blennerhassett
                     |                            poss. descendant of Henry I
                     |
                    Robert Blennerhassett (born c.1622) == Avice Conway
                     |                                     poss. descendant of Edward III
                     |
                    Henry Blennerhassett (born c.1675)
                     |          
                    Robert Blennerhassett (born c.1705)
                     |          
                    Ancestor of (almost certainly great-grandfather of):   
                     |                                          
                    George Blennerhassett Cashel (born 1807)               
                     |                                          
                    Blennerhassett Cashel (born 1848)                      
                     |                                          
                    Agnes Cashel (born 1870)                               
                     |                                          
                    Eithne O'Mara (born 1908)                              
                     |                                          
                    Richard Humphreys (born 1937)                          
                     |                                          
                    Mark Humphrys == Elizabeth Gibbon
                                     descendant of Edward III

Most recent titled ancestor

Depending how the descent from Robert Blennerhassett works out, my most recent titled ancestor could be:

Sir Robert Blennerhassett, 2nd Baronet (died 1831).
Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 1st Baronet (died 1821).

We do not know yet if either one is our ancestor.
Before them, you would have to go back a long way to find any more.
The most recent apart from them would be:

Andrew Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor (died 1543).
Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden (died 1523).
George Neville, 4th Baron Abergavenny (died 1492).

Unknown portrait inherited by the Blennerhassett Baronets.
It is possible this is Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 1st Baronet.
Though it might be some other ancestor.