By John Choate

This pedigree lists a Scot, Malcolm MacLeod [GMB3-28F] as a 12th cousin two times removed of Louis Philippe, who in turn, is ancestor of Belgian and United Kingdom royalty.

This column is a series about the hobby of family history using  familysearch.org and relativefinder.org. Most anyone can conveniently pinpoint known relationships with prominent  founding fathers, celebrities, and religious leaders. English and Scottish descendants may connect with some 700 people in the data base, if their pedigrees are in Family Search. As of 2024, Family search has 1.67 billion searchable people, with 530 million sources to increase accuracy.  Because Frederick Crist Trump Jr’s ancestors  have many descendants, the Trumps have cousins by the dozens. The family trees come from familysearch.org.  Let’s review the Belgian Royal lines which are tied to German, English and Scots family trees.

       Since the records go back many centuries, many of the names have had whole books of biographies recording their stories. Many biographies  are featured in the Dictionary of National Biography. The seven character code in brackets [ ]  after a person’s name is the code to find them in FamilySearch.org.  The country is Belgium and the people are Belgians.

       The Kingdom of Belgium [or Belgie, Belgique, or Belgien] sort of popped into existence during the Napoleonic wars. The Belgae were recorded anciently being annexed or absorbed by the Roman Empire at the time of Julius Caesar. The next rulers were the Carolingian Empire with Charlemagne, The Holy Roman Empire, the Burgundian Netherlands, the Habsburg of Spain, the Habsburg of Austria, and Napoleonic French, then the United Kingdom of the Netherlands after the Congress of Vienna in1815. The Belgian Revolution of 1830 resulted in peeling off the western Catholic provinces from the Protestant Netherland. In 1830 London Conference recognized Belgian Independence with King Leopold the First (1^st) as King in 1831.  Belgium has a little under 12 thousand square miles, or 31 thousand square kilometers, a bit larger than Hawaii and  a bit smaller than Maryland  Belgium is squashed between the Netherlands to the north, Luxembourg to the east, and France south and west. Belgium is the headquarters for the European Union and NATO. The regions include Dutch speaking Flanders to the north, with an American military cemetery, Flander’s field and its poppies. The French speaking Wallonis is on the south, and the German speaking to the east. English is listed with 40% of the population, about the same as French.

This pedigree lists Malcolm Macleod as a  14^th cousin of Prince Oscar Carl Wilhelm Bernadotte of Sweden [LHMQ-DVF]. Who, in life was referred to as Prince Carl of Sweden and Norway, Duke of Vastergotland and married Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, [LT9Z-Z4X].  (14^th cousin by marriage) who was born 2 August 1878 and died 12 March 1958. Vastergotland, literally means west land of the Goths. This Malcolm is the grandfather of   Frederick Crist Trump Jr. [L5XX-XDH] born in 1938 and died in 1981, (becoming 14^th cousin twice removed ofPrince Carl) of whom more later. Prince Carl andIngeborg areancestors of theGrand Ducal family of Luxembourg, and theBelgian and the Norwegian royal families. Prince Carl and Ingeborg’s daughter was Princess Astrid ( Astrid Sofia Lovisa Thyra Bernadotte 15^th cousin of Mary Trump nee MacLeod) of Sweden, who was born in 1905 but died in 1935 in car wreck. Astrid’s familysearch personal number is [2H27-S9R]. She was Queen as the wife of King Leopold the 3rd of Belgium (full nameLéopold III Philippe Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Marie Miguel von Sachsen Cobourg und Gotha [LT8P-PMG]. Prince Carl’s ancestors took the name as the House of Bernadotte.

Queen Astrid’s (15^th cousin to Mary Trump nee MacLeod)husband,King Leopold the 3^rd’s (15^th cousin) great grand father was Louis Philippe Leopold Michael de Belgique Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, [LH7G-SJD] who was born in 1837 and died in 1905. This Louis Philippe is the  husband of my 9th cousin four times removed, Maria von Hohenzollern Sigmaringen 1845-1912, [LHVB-12L].

This pedigree shows Prince  Carl  as the 5^th cousin one time removed from Prince Albert consort of Queen Victoria.

This Louis Philippe of the Belgians was a son of King Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha I of the Belgians who was born in 1790 and died in1865. [GW2Q-ZNP] This  King Leopold 1^st was known in life as the First King of the Belgians, from 1831,as noted above.  King Leopold the 1^st  is also the husband of my 12th cousin once removed Charlotte Augusta Hanover [LZXT-LFZ] 1796-1817.  King Leopold 1^st of Belgium parents were Francis Josias Frederick Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld [LRYM-N5Y] and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf [GRJT-FL1]. Leopold 1^st‘s brother Ernst Anton Karl Ludwig 1, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha [G435-L63] father of Prince Albert.

       This pedigree lists Louis Philippe as 5^th cousin one time removed from Ernst Anton Karl Ludwig 1s, Duke of Saxe-Coburg.

      King Leopold the 1^st was paternal uncle with Queen Charlotte, [LZXT-LFZ] his spouse and the aunt, and brother of Ernst Anton Karl Ludwig 1 Duke Saxe Coburg  [G435-L63] 1784-1844 and Princess Louise von Sachsen-Gotha Altenburg of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha[LC3D-FRF],  who was born in 1819 and died in 1861 as was Queen Victoria’s [L1S2-QT6] consort. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, (12^th cousin of Malcolm MacLeod) of the  United Kingdom were parents of King Edward 7th [LD34-CQD] Mary Trump’s  13^th cousin, grand parents of King George 5th [LD34-CWD], Donald’s 14^th cousin great grand parents of King George 6^th [LZNY-C9R], Eric’s 15^th cousin,  great great grand parents of  Queen Elizabeth 2^nd[ G71M-BYY], Kai’s 16^th cousin,  and the third great grandparents of present King Charles the Third, of the United Kingdom, Donald’s 14^th cousin 2 times removed. They are fourth great grandparents to  Prince of Wales William Windsor, heir apparent,   who is married with children.

Coming another  circle, according to family search, Donald John Trump Senior’s  grand father Malcolm MacLeod [GMB3-28F] is 14^th cousin of Prince Oscar Carl Wilhelm Bernadotte of Sweden [LHMQ-DVF]. Malcolm’s daughterMary Anne Trump nee MacLeod  is 15th cousin of Queen Astrid of Sweden, wife of King Leopold the 3rd of Belgium. Malcolm’s grandson Donald Trump Senior is 16^th cousin of King Albert II of Belgium, Leopold the 3^rd’s son and Queen Paola Ruffo di Calabria. Malcolm’s great grand son Barron Trump is 17^th cousin King Philippe of Belgium, Albert 2^nd’s son reigning since 2013, with Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz. Malcolm’s great great grand son Luke Trump is 18^th cousin Princess Elizabeth, King Philippe’s daughter and heiress apparent.