# No direct descendants of these famous folks **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 5, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995 "2011-11-05T21:48:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/21 "2011-11-07T05:51:30Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > I agree. My point was that the peerage thing essentially resets the family line in each new generation. The first Duke of Jowlfat has seven kids, the oldest male of whom becomes the second Duke, and so on. But eventually the process commonly results in extinction. I agree that all peerages will eventually end in extinction, although some (those allowing both males and females to inherit) will last a lot longer. For example, the inheritance rules of the Dukedom of Marlborough are theoretically designed to ensure that the title lasts as long as there are descendants, of either sex, of the first Duke. > [@Noel Prosequi](#): > > While there may be plenty of direct offspring of the first Duke around, they will only be second or third or fourth cousins of the last Duke, not descendants entitled to take the title. Perhaps I’m not understanding you, but distant cousins will be entitled to take the title if they are heirs within the defined category. > [@Noel Prosequi](#): > > And while I accept that the last Duke’s progeny may extinguish the title by virtue of the fact that his progeny are all female, my sense is that it is mostly for want of any progeny at all. I’ve just done a quick and probably not very accurate analysis of 20th/21st century extinctions - gotta do something while waiting to be called into the management meeting. I looked only at the higher titles (dukes, marquesses and earls). The numbers got out of hand if I threw in lower titles. The extinctions were roughly split by: - those where the last holder had one or more daughters: 36% - those where the last holder had no children, but the previous holder had had one or more daughters: 43% - those where both the last holder of the title and the previous holder had no children: 21% ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/22 "2011-11-09T03:39:03Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Incorrect. > > He had at least 1 child, out of wedlock. Care to expand on this? I ain’t never heerd of such. (Or, is this a whoosh?) Thanks, hh ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/23 "2011-11-09T05:16:39Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I forget the name of it, but I remember reading that if you go to a certain period of time (long ago?) that everyone alive at that time period either: > > 1. Was the direct ancestor of EVERYONE now living; OR > 2. Current has zero living direct descendants. Am I missing something, or wouldn’t that be true of any and every period of history? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/24 "2011-11-09T12:31:53Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Am I missing something, or wouldn’t that be true of any and every period of history? 😕 I am glad you said that- I thought I was going around the twist. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/25 "2011-11-09T18:36:28Z")
My wife (well, actually her younger sister, if we’re being picky) will likely be the last with her surname - her father is the last male of the line and had two daughters. She’s an old-fashioned gal and took my surname when we married, so our daughter has been assimilated into the **Colophon** line. (Bwah-ha-haa…) Of course, her sister could decide to pass on her surname if and when she has children. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/26 "2011-11-09T21:25:41Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > > [@jtgain](#): > > > > I forget the name of it, but I remember reading that if you go to a certain period of time (long ago?) that everyone alive at that time period either: > > > > 1. Was the direct ancestor of EVERYONE now living; OR > > 2. Current has zero living direct descendants. > > Am I missing something, or wouldn’t that be true of any and every period of history? 😕 You’re missing something. For example, let’s take a specific point in history: 1 Nov 2011. And let’s look at a particular person living at that time: Barack Obama. He has two currently living, direct descendents, so he fails condition 2. And he is not the direct ancestor of Joe Biden, currently living, so he fails condition 1. Thus the theorem is not currently true for that date. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/27 "2011-11-09T21:47:38Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Am I missing something, or wouldn’t that be true of any and every period of history? 😕 You’re missing the all-or-nothingness of the statement. Noah (if you believe in Genesis) is a direct ancestor of everyone now living. Everyone else in the antediluvian era has no living descendants. Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, has direct living descendants, but not everyone alive today is his direct descendant. Disclaimer: I have no idea if the original statement was accurate. ETA: ninjaed by 22 minutes?! How slow do I type? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/28 "2011-11-09T23:13:43Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Incorrect. > > He had at least 1 child, out of wedlock. > [@handsomeharry](#): > > Care to expand on this? I ain’t never heerd of such. (Or, is this a whoosh?) > > Thanks, > hh No woosh. He was French, by nationality, & sired during Hitler’s time as a WW1 soldier. You might say the guy didn’t advertise it. > **[Jean Loret](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Loret)** > > Jean Loret (ca 1600-1665) was a French writer and poet known for publishing the weekly news of Parisian society (including, initially, its pinnacle, the court of Louis XIV itself) from 1650 until 1665 in verse in what he called a gazette burlesque. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of journalism" as a result of his topical writings. > In an 1868 review of the French press, Charles Dickens called Loret's journal "the smartest of them all" being published in the period following the death o... That was hard luck. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/29 "2011-11-09T23:15:07Z")
WHOOPS! Just re-read. DNA disproved it. ---
**Author:** ![Dorabella](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@Dorabella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorabella)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/30 "2011-11-10T00:07:45Z")
Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart He and his wife had six children but only two boys survived their infancy. I do not believe they had children. His sister died without children too I believe. ---
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/31 "2011-11-10T00:25:21Z")
Yes, Laura Ingall’s parents’ siblings intermarried(?). The Quiners and the Ingalls as the prior poster shared had four unions among the siblings. Small town big families teehee. There’s a website for relatives of Mark Twain, that is cousins of Mark Twain, thru his siblings and not thru Mark himself. I’m guessing there are actual Lincoln cousins still out there as Abe did have a sister and a brother. Thomas Jefferson would have lineage via Sally Hemmings too, so Jeffersons are all over the place. He’s America’s Genghis Khan! ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/32 "2011-11-10T08:09:21Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > There are no direct descendants of William Shakespeare (unless he, or one of his grandsons, had an illegitimate child). Of his four grandchildren, one died in infancy, two died as young, unmarried men, and the fourth, his granddaughter Elizabeth, married twice but never had any children of her own. William Davenant, Poet Laureate of England from 1638, was Shakespeare’s godson and rumored to be his son in more than just God. He married three times and had several children. Another great literary ancestor, Lord Byron, DOES have living descendants, but for several generations his family line just barely managed to stumble along; a good illustration for how easy it could be for a noble family to die out. Byron’s only legitimate daughter 1 Ada Lovelace (herself famous for her work on Babbage’s “analytical machine”) had three children of her own. Her elder son, Byron King-Noel, died unmarried and childless. Her second son, Ralph, married and had two daughters who both died unmarried and childless. Ada’s only daughter, Anne, married the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. Anne suffered many miscarriages and stillbirths, but gave birth to one surviving daughter, Judith. Judith married a younger son of the earl of Lyttton and had three children; her eldest son, Noel, eventually became the fourth earl of Lytton. Noel’s son John is the current earl of Lytton, and all of Byron’s descendants can be found in this small family. I doubt there are more than perhaps 30 descendants of Lord Byron alive today. 1. Elizabeth Medora Leigh, the daughter of Byron’s half-sister and lover Augusta Leigh, may have been Byron’s biological daughter. She had two children, but her daughter became a nun. Any descendants would have to be through Medora’s obscure French son. Another example of a family going through several only children before going extinct is found in the descendants of Conrad of Montferrat. Conrad, a scion of the powerful noble family of medieval Montferrat, married Queen Isabella of Jerusalem in 1190. In 1192 he was assassinated, leaving Isabella pregnant with their first and only child, Maria. Maria married the adventurer Jean de Brienne in 1210, and two years later she gave birth to her only child, Yolande. Maria died shortly after Yolande’s birth. Yolande married the German emperor Friedrich II in 1225. Yolande died giving birth to a son named Konrad in 1228. He grew up to become Konrad IV of Germany, but died in 1254, leaving two sons of his own: a legitimate son called Konradin, and an illegitimate son called Corradino. Both sons were executed as teenagers by Charles of Anjou. So from 1192 to 1269, this family went through five generations, with three successive generations being only children, before being snuffed out entirely with the executions of the two young half-brothers Konradin and Corradino. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/33 "2011-11-10T11:01:46Z")
I believe Edgar Allan Poe died without offspring. But according to my crazy family, we’re related to the family that (didn’t formally) adopt him. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/34 "2011-11-10T12:35:41Z")
Alexander the Great. One son (postumous) who was assassinated before adulthood. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/35 "2011-11-10T13:51:55Z")
I’ve made a [post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14448704&postcount=30) in this [related thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14448704#post14448704) which argues specific bloodlines dying out may not matter as much as you might think. Your number of ancestors increases exponentially with each generation. If a direct descendant of George Washington was alive today, Washington would be just one of their thousand odd great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents. (I’m making some assumptions here about the average number of years between generations, and ignoring the fact some of the uber-parents would in fact be the saem person, due to things like distant cousins marrying). **We may never see their like again.** Well, we wouldn’t have anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/36 "2011-11-10T14:30:44Z")
> [@smokey78](#): > > Yes, Laura Ingall’s parents’ siblings intermarried(?). The Quiners and the Ingalls as the prior poster shared had four unions among the siblings. Small town big families teehee. Three unions. The two families lived on neighboring farms, so I guess it was a “boy next door” sort of thing. Czar Nicholas II of Russian and his family were all shot dead. No survivors. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/37 "2011-11-10T23:01:12Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Alexander the Great. One son (postumous) who was assassinated before adulthood. I heard the boy _died_, nothing about a murder. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/38 "2011-11-11T06:14:03Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > I heard the boy _died_, nothing about a murder. Alexander IV (son of Alexander the Great) and his mother Roxane were poisoned on the orders of Kassandros. Kassandros also had Alexander the Great’s illegitimate son, Herakles, secretly killed. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/39 "2011-11-11T07:22:15Z")
While Andrew Jackson had ten adopted children, he had no biological children. ---
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995/40 "2011-11-11T21:47:49Z")
I’ve been reading up on Queen Victoria passing on hemophiliac gene to royal families. I know she has direct descendants of course, but was wondering did the hemophiliac gene die out in the family tree? That the hemophiliac males died without surviving children and the female carriers passed on normal children who survived on? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-direct-descendants-of-these-famous-folks/601995.md?page=3)