Are you the rightful king/queen of your family?

[Beebo]

I was thinking about it last night. It’s very hard to be the ultimate heir.
How many people can claim to be the first born, of the first born, of the first born etc etc.
For instance I’m the first born in my direct family but my dad was the second born, so by my reckoning my cousin David is king of the overall family, but I don’t know if our grandfather was a first born?

Does anyone understand this nonsense?

 

[AndyRM]

I'm the first born of my siblings, my dad was the first born of his, his father was the first born of his and his father was the first born of his.

I've got a pretty strong claim to the family throne.

 

[DCLane]

Yes. Or rather I will be at some point, but hopefully not too soon.

 

[Grant Fondo]

I'm more like the stable boy to Her Majesty in my house.

 

[Reynard]

Likewise me. I'm an only child, and my father was the eldest of two, and his father was an only child. On my paternal grandmother's side of the family, things get a lot more complicated due to cousins marrying each other etc.

But yes, I am the head of the family despite the fact that a lot of my more junior relatives - cousins and the like living in Poland and Germany are significantly older than me.

If WW2 and communism hadn't happened, I would currently be the owner of a minor title and a fairly significant estate on the outskirts of Poznan.

Having said that, I am the slave of Mesdames Poppy and Lexi, as they are the true aristocrats in this household.

 

[LarryDuff]

2nd son of a 2nd son here

 

[Smokin Joe]

First son of a first (And only) father and a first daughter.

I always knew there was something special about me

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I'm recruiting an army to ensure my succession (a very traditional approach )

 

[Ripple]

@Reynard
You should write how did your family ended up in UK. 100% it would be very interesting.

 

[ianrauk]

2nd son of a 2nd son here

Me too...and sitting here with my 2nd son

 

[SpokeyDokey]

No idea: I'm pretty certain that my 'father' was not my real father.

No one alive to corroborate my suspicion.

 

[Specialeyes]

I just looked it up - if my paternal grandmother was the Queen, I'd be Eugenie... (youngest child of the 3rd-born)
Says it all, really

That said, my daughter was the first girl in 9 in our branch of the family tree.

 

[Reynard]

@Reynard
You should write how did your family ended up in UK. 100% it would be very interesting.

My paternal grandfather was a Provincial Governor in SW Poland at the outbreak of WW2 ( based in Lviv in what is now modern day western Ukraine). He was entrusted to smuggle Marshal Pilsudski's wife and children out of Poland via Lithuania, Latvia, and thence to Holland via Sweden. He was given $500 in gold $10 coins to facilitate that - and I still have one of them.

Grandad Arthur then joined his wife and two sons in Paris before being co-opted back into the Polish military as a Colonel (he was a military veteran of WW1 and the Polish-Bolshevik war and retired as a Lt Colonel in 1933), and commanded the military camp at St Loup. He then was tasked with organizing the camp's evacuation ahead of the German advance in 1940, and ended up in Scotland via Liverpool. There, he was in charge of education and soldier welfare.

I'm still trying to piece it together from three suitcases full of documents and other stuff. I'm OK with the typed stuff, but the handwritten stuff is a nightmare to read.

As an aside, Grandad Arthur was heavily involved in student politics as a young man, and ended up in the same Russian gulag as Lenin. The two men became friends (grandad's politics were definitely leftwards leaning despite being a minor aristocrat), and even went on holiday together.

 

[Ripple]

@Reynard Wooooow !!!

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

2nd son of a 2nd son here

That's fine
Just watch out form anyone claiming to be an 7th son of a 7th son
or 8th of 8th for Pratchett fans