related to Denmark royals

[Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee]

I am new to this. So please be gentle. I recently completed my family tree on ancestry.com, but knowing that many things on ancestry aren't as they appear, I've asked several countries for assistance. My tree shows multiple GGF's and GGM's who were King's or Queen's of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. I wanted to ask if there is anyone who specializes in the Royal families of Denmark who be might be able to help? I took my tree back 540 BC, but much of this old information is likely speculative. I also used geni.com and online resources before adding people to my tree. Any help with this would be appreciated. Thank you. Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee

[Peter Kristiansen]

Try this,
http://genealogy.euweb.cz/

and let us know where your family are attached to royals.

I think especially geni.com is notorious to have a lot of claims of family connections - and if a claim is repeated a thousand times it suddenly becomes a truth....

[George Chandler]

It's very difficult to prove most male lines past the 1500's with good paperwork. You can test the male line using DNA (both SNP and STR) to see if you can find some interesting matches. Most of the genealogy you see on the online websites is pretty bad but you can also find some interesting nuggets of history.

They are beginning to test the DNA that was extracted from Rollo's grave and there are more than a dozen different unrelated genetic groups claiming to be the male descendants (that I'm aware of). It is interesting when male line genetics match other lines which are supposed to be descended from the same historical ancestor.

George 

[Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee]

Thank you Mr. Chandler and Mr. Pedersen. I appreciate your responses. I was raises in an orphanage in South Texas. I was unaware who my blood relatives were until I was able to unseal my records, and learn who my parents were. For someone who doesn't have ton's of money to spend on research or professionals; what should I do? My husband and I built my family tree using libraries, online resources, and did our best to verify everything correctly. From my tree, there are Capet's, Flanders, Plantagenet, Angou, Arimathea, Thuringia, and many others. I can't afford to hire a professional. Someone from Ancestry.com called me offering to verify my tree for $2500 USD. If I am relates to Denmark, Sweden and Norway royalty, I guess I will never know. I do know my Whitbeck family came from Wedbek Holstein Netherlands, and my Bingham family CE from Sir Robert DeBingham of Bingham Sutton Melcomb in England. Beyond that, all I added was names I found at the library. Thanks for your recommendations.

[George Chandler]

Thank you Mr. Chandler and Mr. Pedersen. I appreciate your responses. I was raises in an orphanage in South Texas. I was unaware who my blood relatives were until I was able to unseal my records, and learn who my parents were. For someone who doesn't have ton's of money to spend on research or professionals; what should I do? My husband and I built my family tree using libraries, online resources, and did our best to verify everything correctly. From my tree, there are Capet's, Flanders, Plantagenet, Angou, Arimathea, Thuringia, and many others. I can't afford to hire a professional. Someone from Ancestry.com called me offering to verify my tree for $2500 USD. If I am relates to Denmark, Sweden and Norway royalty, I guess I will never know. I do know my Whitbeck family came from Wedbek Holstein Netherlands, and my Bingham family CE from Sir Robert DeBingham of Bingham Sutton Melcomb in England. Beyond that, all I added was names I found at the library. Thanks for your recommendations.

You're welcome to email me privately. Any help I provide won't cost you.

Attempting to prove a male line can cost that much ($2,500) just to obtain proper evidence for a few generations in the 1400's. Trying to locate old paper trails can be very expensive involving many hours of research. Many genealogists will provide the person with a generic surname history including the oldest recorded names in a certain area but that may or may not be the line you're looking for.

Using Autosomal DNA testing will likely provide you with only a more recent connection within the past 5 generations or so. If you locate a brother who has the same birth father as you it would be easier to test genetically. Genetic testing can get very expensive and may not provide the answers you are searching for. Many genetic lines are private and even if you found a positive match you may never find out if that is in fact the case unless they agree to share the information with you.

My advice when searching your tree is to use only links which have documentary evidence to back up the link. If I can't locate the paperwork I put an "unverified" or "researching" attachment to the name so another person doesn't run too far with it.

As mentioned before there are many errors..(both on purpose and innocent) regarding genealogy and finding the truth can be very expensive.

George

[Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee]

Dear Mr. Chandler,
I do have an older brother. I didn't find him until 2013. He is my only blood relative left on earth. Would it be better to use his DNA for testing as it relates to King Rollo? My tree Rollo and Poppa of Bayeaux as my 38th GGP's. In addition to this, my mother was born a Bingham. I traced her Bingham Family back to Sir Robert DeBingham, Knight, but couldn't find any others beyond that. Geni.com says he is the first recorded Bingham. How long do you think it would take for DNA matching of my brothers DNA back to Rollo? I'm sure that would be highly expensive as well. Thank you for your help and kindness.

Carolyn

[George Chandler]

Hello Carolyn,

If you suspect it is a direct male line leading back to the Viking Rollo who became Duke of Normandy then the best way would be to test your brothers Y chromosome. The Y chromosome is passed from father to son. If you go through your tree and find the connection is from branch that comes from a maternal line then the Y chromosome test won't help you. So just as an example below:

Rollo

(35 generations of sons between) "example"

Your brother

Your brother should have the same Y chromosome as Rollo with slight variations.

If the tree looks something like this:

Rollo

Son

Son

Daughter

Son

(generations between)

Your brother

Your brother won't share the same Y Chromosome with Rollo unless the daughter descendant married a close male relative connected to the male line of Rollo. This is because the daughter inherited the MtDNA from the mother but not the Y chromosome of the father.

If you email me your tree I can take a look at it.

Right now Rollo's DNA is being tested so if there is a match we may know by the end of the year. Just remember there are about 15 different unrelated genetic groups (that I've seen) all claiming descent from Rollo. My advice would be to test if you're interested but don't set your hopes too high.

George

[Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee]

Thank you Mr. Chandler, how long does it take for DNA testing and matching before you can say definitively? Also, how would I send you my tree? Its huge. I have saved it as a Gedcom file, and could probably email that to you. Your thoughts? You mentioned before that there are supposedly multiple male line descendants claiming descendancy from King Rollo. Do any of them match? I'm just trying to get an idea of how long something like this takes. Thank you again.

Carolyn

[George Chandler]

Hello Carolyn,

You can just click on the envelope below my name or email to George.ChandlerDNA@protonmail.ch.

The time results take to come back depend on the type of testing, the company doing the sequencing and the time it takes to return the cheek swab sample to the lab.

The DNA results for Rollo won't be published until later this year.

George

[Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee]

Thank you Mr. Chandler,

I had my DNA done a year ago by DDC in Salt Lake City, Utah; in an effort to verify that I actually was related to the Whitbeck family. Is it possible to use these results for the purposes of matching to Denmark royals, or would have to do another cheek swab and start from scratch?

Getting DNA from my brother is going be a challenge, because he is incarcerated in Texas. I'm just trying to find a way to expedite this process somehow. Also, let's just say for example that my DNA does match Denmark royalty; I doubt that anyone from the Royal family would welcome me in with open arms. I suspect that there are many people who are related to them. How do they handle things like this?

I will send you my Gedcom file today. Thanks again for your patience with me.

Carolyn

[George Chandler]

Hi Carolyn,

It would depend on where your tree connects and how far back. Your sample carries Mitochondrial DNA through the maternal line and you pass that on to your children. Any of your daughters with pass it on to their children, but although your sons inherit your Mitochondrial DNA they don't pass it on to their children. If you were connected within the past 100-200 years it's possible to find a match using Autosomal DNA but I'm not aware of a Royals using this type of testing and posting who they in fact are even if there was a match.

They point of the DNA testing or the genealogy match (if there is one) isn't to start contacting the older matches unless they wanted to be contacted. Some people are very private about their DNA etc. So unless they identify themselves in terms of who they are then they won't want to be contacted or bothered. The goal is to locate matches (Royal or not) which can give you an idea of your ancestry. Some of the most interesting are broken lines or lines that have nothing to do with Royalty. A person should be just as proud to be descended from Johann the farmer 1,000 years ago as any Royal.

Where DNA testing would help you is if you suspect you were connected through the direct paternal line to a historical figure such as Rollo..and his remains that are being tested happened to match your brother at a level which gave a high probability that your ancestry is correct. There are the remains of a couple of historic people who have had their MtDNA sequenced but it may not be at a level which would prove a match in terms of your ancestry.

I hope this helps.

George

[Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee]

Thank you again Mr. Chandler,
So if understand you correctly, the ideal way to connect to Denmark royalty, would be not only to have a validated tree, but also DNA matching. I suppose that would be the ultimate proof. I will be emailing you shortly with the Gedcom file.

Carolyn

[Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee]

Dear Mr. Chandler,
I certainly hope that I haven't done or said something to upset or anger you somehow. I've not heard anything from you regarding my Whitbeck Family Tree. Again, as I said before, I am a simple person, and an orphan, once I learned who my parents were, I started using Ancestry to determine who my ancestors were. So when you offered to look at my tree, I was obviously I was excited. As a 54 year old, going through life not knowing where I came from, I guess waiting a few more years isn't going to make much difference. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much for offering to look at this for me.

Carolyn Whitbeck-Sosbee