Jezebel tells us that Ancestry.com reveals that Catherine, wife of Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge, and Jane Austen, the writer, are 11th cousins, 6 times removed.
Jezebel quotes lead historian Anastasia Harman, "Finding this connection between the Duchess of Cambridge and Jane Austen is very exciting since, in many ways, Catherine is the modern Jane Austen heroine: a middle-class girl marrying the future King of England."
Imagine! A heroine in a novel comes to life in the real world two centuries later, marrying up even higher than Elizabeth Bennet, to whom I assume the historian refers, when she married Mr Darcy. And the 11th cousin, 6 times removed, of the former middle-class lass and now duchess, wrote the book! What a gob-smacking coincidence......if you're digging really deep to find coincidences.
Thanks to Ann for the link.
