Well, some of it is because we tend to mark the more unusual or important people in our backgrounds and gloss over the less important people, except as links to the important people.
Though in America, you're more likely to get a mixed bag of what counts as 'important'. Oddly, in my family, few of my direct ancestors were nationally important (though there were a couple), but we have lots of famous uncles. (One of whom, oddly, was Oliver Cromwell... I'm not sure if that counts as being related to royalty or the antithesis of being related to royalty.)
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Date: 2007-11-14 12:29 am (UTC)Though in America, you're more likely to get a mixed bag of what counts as 'important'. Oddly, in my family, few of my direct ancestors were nationally important (though there were a couple), but we have lots of famous uncles. (One of whom, oddly, was Oliver Cromwell... I'm not sure if that counts as being related to royalty or the antithesis of being related to royalty.)