How to find your royal bloodline

IMAGINE finding out you're directly related to royalty. That's what happened to one Australian when her cousin traced the family tree.

Could you be related to royalty?

WHEN JENNY Burrows was 20 she had a vivid and recurring dream. She saw herself running around the rooms of a mansion with large windows and heavy red curtains.

Now, the retired Qantas air hostess from Sydney laughs at the idea that her dream might have been a flashback to a previous life.

"I have traced the family back to (King) Edward III, which makes him my 19th great grandfather and the Queen my distant cousin," Ms Burrows told news.com.au. "Friends often ask me if I'll drop in to the palace when I visit for a holiday."

Ms Burrows's second cousin did most of the work tracing their family history and his search began long before there were websites such as findmypast.com.au or ancestry.com.

"It was much more laborious for him because he had to travel to England to dig out the old records and get the facts right," Ms Burrows said.

Imagine having a royal on your family tree.

Heather Garnsey, executive officer at the Society of Australian Genealogists, said while genealogy websites made it easier and quicker to trace family history the most rigorous search required a range of historical sources.

"There are gaps in history that mean you need to dig deeper in historical records. But people start to love the process because it's a bit like being your own personal detective," Ms Garnsey said.

"There's no end point to tracing your family history. Once you find one person, then you can chase their parents and so on and so on."

And there is also no guarantee of finding a family connection.

"That really depends on what line you are tracing, whether it is a legitimate or illegitimate family line. It's hard to find royal blood because, depending on how far back you go, kings had mistresses," Ms Garnsey said.

Jenny Burrows discovered she was a distant cousin of the Queen of England.

Ms Burrows said that while she was thrilled by her royal connections, she found digging up the history of her less regal ancestors more enjoyable.

"Royal connections mean everything is so well-documented which takes the fun of the search right out of it," she said "The other searches meant I had to trace things like newspaper archives and state records. The detail I found there helped me build up a real picture of what life was like for these characters from my past."

Could you be related to royalty?

Have you ever traced your family tree? Got any royal ancestors? Share in the comments below.