Since 2016 we've given various updates about the work we've done in Euroaristo to bring REAL well-sourced descents from Edward III (d.1377) down into modern times where more genealogists might find a link. To remind, EIII was the last king of England who anyone with west European ancestry has a pretty good chance of descending from. (Because they are quite common please do not post your trail here or on any profiles.)
As with the lines from Magna Carta barons, at least some of these lines are also well-studied anchor points that we can use to clean up a difficult period where there are many errors, frauds, gedcom problems etc.
(Unlike the Magna Carta project, this project does not stop at American emigrants. So in effect this helps expand that project's work. But this time we use the classic wiki tool of Categories to track things, rather than a large sub-project. Probably this approach can be used more.)
So as discussed first in several threads we have now finally gone ahead and created a category for all the confirmed 5th generation from Edward that we have in Wikitree (132 of them, but French, Portuguese, Spanish, Austrian, German, Belgian etc branches are poorly represented here so far!)
See
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Edward_III_5th_Gen_Descendants The list of confirmed descents done before doing this step, involved research efforts going back to 2016 and discussed in various updates. I hope this step will make that work more useful and appreciated!
For future steps there are already categories for the 6th and 7th generation. There is no point, we think, covering generations before the 5th (It would basically be the extended royal family of the time, who are well-known. The research pages are linked to for those interested. As a side study in there for example RJ and myself made a study of the lines connecting EIII and the 16th century royal couple, Spanish Phillip and Bloody Mary.)
...And there will probably be no point in the foreseeable future in going beyond say 9 or 10 generations. By then the number of descendants will explode and the modern documents start appearing, and it will be better for individual genealogists to take it up in groups or individually.
Once again, as with Magna Carta, and as with pre-1200 barony studies, or any project which improves quality this will mean a new "eye" upon any parts of Wikitree which might not always get the attention they need. Hopefully this makes everyone happy, not sad! Please keep the good intentions in mind if you are a profile manager seeing merge requests. Ask questions, raise concerns, but please also be helpful. Duplicates and fakes and frankensteins and so on will need to be discussed and fixed based on the best sources, but if you know of any areas where mistakes might be made during clean up efforts, please of course let us know.
