Of Royal descent? I don’t think so!

The letter on Richard III in your March issue reminded me of when my son announced that he was descended from Edward III.

I checked the online family tree that he was looking at and immediately spotted an error which means he isn’t – at least not from that evidence.

It assumed Elizabeth Mary Martha Hildyard (parents Christopher and Martha) was the same person as ‘our’ Elizabeth Hildyard (parents Walter and Dorothy) baptised Elizabeth Hildyard on 15 March 1795, at St Marylebone, who married Henry Todd at St Pancras on 25 July 1816, again as just Elizabeth.

The error is repeated on a tree on MyHeritage. I can see no way of contacting them to point this out. Family trees on Ancestry also confuse the two Elizabeths. A friend subscribes and has sent messages but had no response. It reminds me how important it is not to accept genealogical information without checking. Marilyn Hildyard-Todd, by email