[APG Public List] celebrity connections to royalty or famoushistorical people

[LBoswell]

Oh boy, that's a minefield, better you than me.

You might start by correcting some of the stereotypes.  Starting with the 
'royalty' one, in all its forms.

Interesting question here for me is the idea of how far back does one feel a 
'connection'.  I suspect that those who are asking that one probably don't 
feel much connection beyond just the generations that contained living 
persons whom they actually knew.  People who don't have any interest beyond 
that.

You might turn that one back on the host and ask how far back she feels a 
connection (or her writer).  I bet you'll find that question then connects 
back to the royalty myth (no great sense of connection, but *if* there was a 
'royal' connection, then great interest!).

I sometimes find the most rabid clients are those who have sunk their teeth 
into the myth of some sort of royal connection.  That no amount of evidence 
will shake them loose from.

have fun

Larry
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joan Fraser
  To: apgpubliclist at apgen.org
  Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 2:17 PM
  Subject: [APG Public List] celebrity connections to royalty or 
famoushistorical people




  I have been asked to speak briefly with a radio host on Monday morning and 
would like to provide a broader opinion than my own on the following topic 
specifically at what point in going back do these connections lose any real 
meaning for us or our clients:
  "we want to know how anyone finds connections that old [e.g. to nobility 
or to royalty -their example is Count Vlad]- we're so often hearing that 
some celebrity is related to another or something like that. We'd want to 
talk about the field of genealogy and how these connections are found. When 
does family connection lose meaning in your opinion? Just because they 
shared a relative 400 years ago, does that matter to people you've worked 
with? In your experience can we all find someone famous in our family tree 
if we look far enough back/ are we all related in some way if you go far 
enough back?"

  Any brief thoughts on this topic?
  Joan Fraser, genealogist

   Treasured-Legacies.com


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <../attachments/20100625/03f85e23/attachment.htm>