Kate Middleton & Jane Austen Cousins

We're all well-acquainted with Pippa, James, Carole and Michael...but meet another addition to the former-Kate Middleton's family tree: Jane Austen. Yes, that Jane Austen, of Pride and Prejudice fame.

Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family history resource, discovered the good news -- the two ladies are linked by one Henry Percy, Catherine's 16th great-grandfather and Jane Austen's 10th great-grandfather, making them 11th cousins, six times removed.

From a press release:

Percy, the ancestor who connects Catherine and Jane, was born in 1392 at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, England. Percy was a 2nd great-grandson of King Edward III - meaning that King Edward is also a distant great-grandfather of Catherine Middleton.

Spending his youth in Scotland, because his father and grandfather were killed fighting against King Henry IV of England, in his early twenties, Percy reconciled with King Henry V (after Henry IV's death) and was tasked with protecting the Scottish border. He was killed in 1455 during the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, at St. Albans, England. The Wars of the Roses were a series of English civil wars fought over the English throne.

Anastasia Harman, Lead Family Historian for Ancestry.com, remarked, "Finding this connection between the Duchess of Cambridge and Jane Austen is very exciting since, in many ways, Catherine is the modern Jane Austen heroine: a middle class girl marrying the future King of England. Jane Austen may have written about happily-ever-after but it seems Catherine has found a nonfiction hero to spend her life with -- far past the epilogue.

Austen isn't the duchess' only famous cousin. Check out who else Catherine is related to here.

Comments

[ynori]

10:32 PM on 06/29/2011

Yeah, I'm related to Jane Austen, too. She's like an 8th cousin 4 times removed or something like that. There are enough distant relatives of Jane Austen to populate a small country.

[messaiiina]

05:36 PM on 07/05/2011

I'm related to her too and you're right. A lot of us are.

[Hocuspocusfocus]

12:41 PM on 06/29/2011

Now we know where the Middletons got their party planning inspiration - Kitty & Lydia Bennet, the militia groupies!

[thelangko]

10:48 AM on 06/29/2011

There are currently three or four wars happening on the face of the planet. Cheap Chinese labor is stealing all of our jobs while everyone is standing in line at Walmart to purchase the things that China produces. Then most people go home after standing in line at Walmart wondering why they don't have a good job and then sit on the couch to watch Football, Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball, Soccer, Hockey, NASCAR, Golf, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, So you think you can dance and all the survival programs and then throw this Royalty Saga on top of it. Ya de ya de ya!!! Wake up America!!

In response to chinarider3819, yes I'm sick of this. I have been for a long time.

[Jolene Hendrickson]

10:12 AM on 06/29/2011

oops I also meant to put cousin

[Jolene Hendrickson]

10:12 AM on 06/29/2011

President McKinley is a distant of mine on my mothers side of family woohoo right

[chinarider3819]

08:49 AM on 06/29/2011

Isn't anyone sick of this? I really don't care what royalty is up to EVERY minute. We have enough real problems in our country to deal with. This isn't entertaining, it's actually depressing after a while. Whoopi doo for them! You know what's even more disgusting, if she was fat and had pimples, no one would care! Why don't they focus on actual news in the news?

[Eleanor Willows]

11:11 AM on 06/29/2011

What's interesting is that for someone who doesn't really care, you care enough to click on it, read it, and comment. You were first to feed the fire. :)

[chinarider3819]

03:30 PM on 06/29/2011

You know what's interesting Eleanor, you didn't read the comment. It says EVERY minute, and yes I like to read ALL kinds of entertaining news as well as the "real" news about issues that have interest to most people. By the way, if you pay attention to how things are posted, you will see, I was definitely NOT first, or,fueling any "fire." I actually made a simple point, and question for us to ponder. Why you think otherwise, doesn't have anything to do with the comment.

[LoneOne]

08:31 AM on 06/29/2011

Well this is better news than when HPost stated she was related to the Lizzy Ellen.

[mjorod]

08:29 AM on 06/29/2011

Oh Please! Even Palin is related to Obama. You didn't know that did you?

[amicusceo]

08:09 AM on 06/29/2011

I'm related to the 'seperatists" of England - off with their heads ! But leave the hats, there funny as hell.

[lecturenotes2]

01:29 AM on 06/29/2011

Everyone is related if you go back far enough on the ancestry tree. We all are descendants prehistoric humans.

[classygirlkq1]

12:19 AM on 06/29/2011

I wish Kate would lose those hats. I know I'm probably in the minority, but to me they look anachronistic and downright silly, and half the time they hide her face.

[dfrancypie]

08:00 AM on 06/29/2011

I kind of like some of the hats, but u'r right they're too much. However, I do wish william would get something on his head if u know what I mean!

[lilly091]

08:18 AM on 06/29/2011

Yeah you're probably a minority :) I adore the hats!

[mrdpavo]

11:54 PM on 06/28/2011

Winston Churchill is my 7th cousin 3x removed, as well as my 8th cousin 4x removed (through a different branch)....obviously though his mother, who was an american with New England stock haha

[trjones87]

11:25 PM on 06/28/2011

I've always held a tinge of jealously towards people who could trace their lineage back hundreds of years. My family has gotten far enough to find bills of sale for some of our ancestors which also revealed that I was related to Harriet Tubman. But I'm grateful for even that little bit of information.

[Pennsylvanianne]

08:42 AM on 06/29/2011

This terrible break with the past is another awful legacy of the reprehensible institution of slavery. You have my sympathies. It is heartening to trace one's family tree (though sometimes people find thieves and worse among the ancestors, too). How wonderful that the admirable Harriet Tubman is part of your legacy.

[kat1547]

10:54 PM on 06/28/2011

Sick of these Middletons..just seen a picture of Pip whatever on aol and she resembles Conan Obrien. Seems that men nowadays want women with men features that include big old chins. Let's all get chin implants! lol

[danny saunders]

09:28 PM on 06/28/2011

OMG! I bet they chat on the phone all the time! Please! If we go back far enough we're all related to someone cooler than we are. Her sixteenth great grandmother LOLZ!