 Hey guys! Welcome back to my channel! Today we're going to be talking about how to find out if you're related to royalty. So we're going to be going over how you can find out if you're related to royalty. And then at the end of this video, I'm going to find out if I am. So let's go ahead and get started. So I was doing some research and I was wondering, does anyone ever wake up and just accidentally have a full-on Princess Diaries moment and find out that they're royalty? In fact, it has happened before in real life. In 2015, a man from Maryland, USA was contacted by a genealogist who told them that he had the rightful heir to the throne to Isle of Man, which is located between England and Scotland. So he was actually the rightful king and ruler of Isle of Man. And that is so wild. Imagine that happening to you. So that story fascinated me and I was just like, how do you find out if you have a rightful heir to any kind of throne or anything cool like that? So I did some research and I found out ways that you can detect whether or not you have any ancestry connected to any royal family. And we're going to go through that together and just kind of talk about that. So the number one and best way to start tracking your ancestry is by looking at your last name. So depending on your last name, you give you a little bit of insight of your family tree. So last names were given to your ancestors in three different ways. Last names were given if you were the son of your father. So if your father's name was William, your last name would be William. Another way to get a last name in the past was just by where you lived. For example, my last name, Vilafane, comes from Vilafane, Spain, which is a small provincial town in Spain, specifically located in Lyon, I think. And it's a completely deserted empty town. Now I actually got to visit it when I went to Spain and it's kind of creepy. It was really cool to see that like that's where my ancestors came from. And so a lot of times you were named based on the town you lived in, especially if you are Spanish, your names would be kind of given to you like Villa Lobos, Villa Fane, Villa meaning village, and then the second half meaning the name of your village. So if your last name is Villa Lobos, your last name is the Village of Wolves and it's super cool. So a lot of times you would get a last name just by where you lived or what village you're from. And the third way to get a last name is simply by your job occupation. So if your last name is Smith, that means your last name came from Black Smith. Your ancestors were Black Smiths. So that was three different ways that last names came about throughout different regions of Europe, of America and so forth. And it's a good way to trace back your family tree. So we're going to do a last name roll call. These last names are special last names because if your last name is any on this list, you're most likely than not related to royalty. So if your last name is Howard, Seymour, Piercy, Byron, Grossfinner and Fitzroy, you are way more likely to be related to royalty than anyone else. So if you guys have that last name, comment down below. I would love to know. So right here in my research notes, it says that an agency in 2011 said that if you have a last name of British origin, you are most likely related to royalty or nobility. If you actually live in the UK, your chances of being related to royalty increases by 20%. So many who trace their ancestry noted that King George III was one of the most popular royals to pop up in people's bloodlines. If you live in England, the reason why living in England really bumps up your chances is because, well, the kings used to breathe a lot with a lot of mistresses and commoners. Specifically, there's a strong likelihood almost every European watching this video right now is related to royalty thanks to King Charlemagne who had 18 children. That's a lot. That's a lot with different mistresses. And so your likelihood of being related to King Charlemagne is very, very high. So you can see that it's actually really quite easy to be related to royalty. In fact, a lot of people are related to royalty one way or another. So if it's not so special to be related to them, what makes it special? And when does it start to matter? Let's talk about it. Now, the answer to that is as simple as if you're directly related to them, it matters. If you're not, it means nothing. Just like the way we treat our families, you know, our fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunt, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-aunt. The ones within our immediate family, maybe a generation behind that, you know, that's the family we consider part of our family. Everyone else is kind of a bit of a stranger to us. And that applies equally so for the royals. The only way a distant relative could really be considered true royalty is if everyone else has died and there's no one else to take place other than this person who is distantly related to the royal family. But that is a very extremely rare case. So now for fun, I want to look at my last name. I want to research it and see if I can find any royal ancestors in my blood and just find out more about where my ancestors came from. So I'm going to go ahead and pull up Google and we're going to get to looking. Oh, oh no. So my last name is associated with farmers. Nothing wrong with that. We love, we love a good vegetable. We love, we love a good harvest. But not what I expected. So it says here on my heritage, the Villafame family name was found in the USA, the UK and Scotland between 1881 and 1920. Okay, so we've got some family members exploring the UK and Scotland. My odds have increased. You know, we've got some world travelers in the bloodline. It says here, notable people with a surname include a drum roll, please. So the notable people that are related to my surname is Angel de Villafame born 1504. He was a Spanish conquistador of Florida, Mexico and Guatemala. So we've got a conquistador in the family. I'm not, it doesn't seem like I'm related to any royalty, at least obviously here. See anything like coming at me, super transparent about me being related to royalty. Um, I can only imagine possibly the only way would be if one of my ancestors had a little fountains with a either a UK or Spanish royal family member. There's got to be someone in my family who like fell in love secretly with one of the Spanish royal family members and like they had a secret kid and then then somewhere down the road I was born. That is kind of like the fantasy that I live in. So maybe if I took a DNA test, I could find out if there was any entanglements, but from the surface level on the internet, it doesn't seem like my odds are all too high. So yeah, so that concludes the end of this video. This was actually really fun. I hope you guys found this interesting and if you guys are related to any royal members of the past or present, comment down below and let me know. I'm super curious and let me know how it has affected your life if you're directly related to them. Do you get any perks? Like, you know, do they need a adopted daughter because I am willing? Okay, okay, I'm going to go. But thank you guys so much for watching. If you guys want more princess and vintage content like this, make sure you subscribe, turn on the notification bell and like this video so that way I can see you in my next one.