True tennis royalty! Eugenie Bouchard's real-life regal connections revealed
Canadian tennis star named for Princess Eugenie is distant cousins with the royal family
- Bouchard's mother, a royal fanatic, named the Wimbledon star for Britain's Princess Eugenie
- Through her father's ancestors, Bouchard is half 11th cousins with The Duchess of Cornwall
- At Wimbledon 2014, Princess Eugenie watched her namesake play in the women's final on Centre Court
TORONTO, June 26, 2015 /CNW/ - Canada's tennis sweetheart Eugenie Bouchard, who is looking to match her incredible run from Wimbledon 2014 at this year's tournament, and is named after Britain's Princess Eugenie, has real life royal family connections.
According to research unveiled today by Ancestry, the world's largest online family history resource, Bouchard - whose mother is known to be a royal fan and named each of her children after princes and princesses - is a distant half-cousin of Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall.
When Eugenie Bouchard played in the women's final of Wimbledon on Centre Court at the All-England Club last summer under the watchful eye of Princess Eugenie, she could not have imagined that she was in fact related by marriage to her royal audience. Bouchard is half 11th cousins, twice removed from The Duchess of Cornwall through her father's side of the family. Their shared ancestors are Jean Guyon and Mathurine Robin, who lived in Beauport, Quebec in the early 1600s. Guyon was one of the earliest settlers in what was then known as New France, having emigrated from Normandy in 1634. What's more, Guyon was regarded as a "master mason of excellent reputation", and was rumoured to have finished the interior stone staircase of St. Aubin's Cathedral, Belgium.
Camilla, through her French-Canadian roots, is also related to Madonna and Celine Dion. All three are descended from the same 17th century French carpenter, Zacharie Cloutier.
According to findings from Ancestry's recent Global Family History report, Bouchard's royal family connection is likely to be envied by many of her fellow Canadians. When asked about the kinds of people Canadians would most like to find in their family tree, respondents were most likely to hope for an ancestor of royal descent over an explorer, a doctor, or even a freedom fighter.
"The things you can discover about your family history using historical records can be extraordinary," said Lesley Anderson, content specialist and family historian with Ancestry. "Records can not only paint a picture of the lives your ancestors lived, they could also prove that you are connected to real-life royalty, just like Genie Bouchard. This is what makes family history such an addictive hobby – you really never know what you might discover if you just keep digging."
Ancestry.ca offers all new users a 14-day free trial. The company also recently launched AncestryDNA, which allows users to explore their family roots even further, going back thousands of years to a time before historical records began to be kept. For more information or to sign up for the free trial, visit www.ancestry.ca.
ABOUT ANCESTRY.CA
Ancestry.ca was launched in January 2006 and is part of Ancestry, the world's largest online family history resource with more than 2 million subscribers across all its websites. More than 16 billion records have been added to the Ancestry.com sites and users have created more than 70 million family trees containing more than 6 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site www.ancestry.com, the company operates several global Ancestry international websites along with a suite of online family history brands, including Archives.com, Fold3.com, Newspapers.com, and offers the AncestryDNA product, sold by its subsidiary, Ancestry International DNA, LLC, all of which are designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.
SOURCE Ancestry.ca
For more information or interviews: Caitie Wallman, [email protected], 416-342-1823; Karolina Olechnowicz, [email protected], 416-342-1822
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