by John Choate

This pedigree lists a Scot, Malcolm MacLeod [GMB3-28F] as the 14th cousin of Prince Oscar Carl Wilhelm Bernadotte of Sweden [LHMQ-DVF].

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, he had cousins by the dozens. The family trees come from familysearch.org.  Let’s review the Belgian Royal lines.

       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 (1st) 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 a Scot, Malcolm MacLeod [GMB3-28F] as the 14th 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, who was born 2 August 1878 and died 12 March 1958. [LT9Z-Z4X]. 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,of whom more later. Prince Carl andIngeborg are ancestors of the Grand Ducal family of Luxembourg, and the Belgian and the Norwegian royal families. Prince Carl and Ingeborg’s daughter was Princess Astrid 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. Prince Carl’s ancestors were referred to as the House of Bernadotte.

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

This Louis Philippe of the Belgians was a son of King Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha I of the Belgians who was born in 1790 and died in1865. [GW2Q-ZNP] This  King Leopold 1st was known in life as the First King of the Belgians, from 1831, as noted above.  King Leopold the 1st  is also the husband of my 12th cousin once removed Charlotte Augusta Hanover [LZXT-LFZ] 1796-1817. 

King Leopold the 1st was paternal uncle with Queen Charlotte, his spouse and the aunt, of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha who was born in 1819 and died in 1861 [LC3D-FRF], Queen Victoria’s consort. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, of the  United Kingdom  are the third great grandparents of present King Charles the Third, of the United Kingdom.

As stated above Malcolm MacLeod is 14th cousin of Prince Carl, whose daughter Astrid became a Belgian.

Now we’ll soon return to King Leopold 3rd mentioned above. But before that, let’s take a look at the present ruler of Belgium, who is King Filip or King Philippe of Belgium. He  born in 1960, and began his reign 2013, with his spouse Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz.  Their Heir apparent is Princess Elisabeth. According to his biography, King Philippe speaks English, Dutch and French and studied at the Royal Military Academy, became a helicopter and fixed wing pilot, para commando. He is a General of the Belgium army; and studied at Oxford (UK) and Stanford (US).

King Philippe is the eldest son of former  King Albert II of Belgium (Prince of Liege) who married Queen Paola Ruffo di Calabria. King Albert 2d was born 6 June 1934, reigned from 1993 to abdication in 2013, and still lives.

King Albert II  became King as he was a younger brother of King Baudouin I of Belgium [G8SP-L5F], whose full name was Roi Baudouin I de Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha de Belgique.  Baudouin the First was born 7 September 1930 and died 31 July 1993.  Baudouin is my 12th cousin once removed, and our common ancestor is Anne Grey nee Windsor [L759-DSW].

King Albert 2d and King Baudouin I are sons of King Leopold 3rd  (1901 November 3)  whose full name was King Leopold Philipp Karl Albrecht Meinrad Hubert Maria Michael III. [GRZ7-DDGEnglish][LT8P-PMGDeutsch] Von Sachsencobourg [from Saxe COBOURG]who abdicated in 1951, but  died 1983 September 25,  who married Astrid of Belgium 1905-1935, 2H27-S9R as noted above. Astrid is the wife of my 11th cousin twice removed King Leopold 3rd.

Coming full circle, Frederick Crist Trump Jr’s grandfather Malcolm MacLeod [GMB3-28F]  was the 14th cousin of Prince Carl [LHMQ-DVF]. Prince Carl’s Daughter Astrid (15th cousin to Malcomb’s daughter Mary Anne Trump nee MacLeod ) married King Leopold 3rd (in law) who had a son King Albert 2d of Belgium (16th cousin to Frederick Jr.) whose sonKing Philippe (17th cousin to Frederick Crist Trump Third) is the current ruler, and father of the heir apparent Princess Elizabeth of Belgium (18th cousin to Frederick 3d’s son Cristopher).

As mentioned above King Philippe is the son of King Albert 2d and Queen Paola Ruffo di Calabria.  Queen Paola was daughter of Fulco VIII, Prince Ruffo di Calabria, 6th Duke of Guardia Lombarda who flourished from 1884 to 1946 [ LYV3-718] Príncipe Fulco VIII Ruffo di Calabria is my 16th cousin.  His spouse Principessa Maria Felice Alliata e Colonna  born 9 September 1783 and died 4 December 1842,  [LH1S-GHC] is  my 13th cousin three times removed.

Calabria was in the far south of the Italian peninsula with the Ionian Sea on the east, and the Strait of Messina with Sicily across the strait on the west.  The title Ruffo of Calabria came from Ademarus Rufus, who died in 1049 AD. Ademarus held the title of Comes in southern Italy. Comes was a  secular title granted to trusted officials of the Imperial Curia (“Court”). In 1235, Siggerio Ruffo became  grand marshal of the  Kingdom of Sicily for Holy Roman emperor Frederick II’s von Hohenstaufen [LD7M-NZ3]. Frederick II was born in 1194 in Marche Italy, and died in 1250 in Puglia, Italy, and had the full German name of Friedrich II  Kaiser Des Heiligen Römischen Reich König Von Sizilien von Hohenstaufen or in English translation Frederick 2d, Emperor of Saints  Roman Empire,  King from Sicily, from High Chalice. Frederick 2d is my 22nd great grandfather.

After the 14th century, the Ruffo family divided into two branches Ruffo di Scaletta and the Ruffo di Calabria, the latter to which Fulco VIII belonged. Coming full circle, Frederick Crist Trump Jr’s grandfather Malcolm MacLeod [GMB3-28F]  was the 14th cousin ofPrince Carl [LHMQ-DVF]. Prince Carl’s DaughterAstrid (15th cousin toMalcomb’s daughterMary Anne Trump nee MacLeod ) married King Leopold 3rd (in law) who had a son King Albert 2d of Belgium (16th cousin to Frederick Jr.) whose sonKing Philippe (17th cousin to Frederick Crist Trump Third) is the current ruler, and father of the heir apparentPrincess Elizabeth of Belgium (18th cousin to Frederick 3d’s son Cristopher).

Another  circle, Donald John Trump Senior’s  grand father Malcolm MacLeod is 14th cousin of Prince Oscar Carl Wilhelm Bernadotte of Sweden [LHMQ-DVF]. Malcolm’s daughter Mary 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 16th cousin of King Albert II of Belgium, Leopold the 3rd’s son and Queen Paola Ruffo di Calabria. Malcolm’s great grand son Barron Trump is 17th cousin King Philippe of Belgium, Albert 2nd’s son reigning since 2013, with Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz. Malcolm’s great great grand son Luke Trump is 18th cousin Princess Elizabeth, King Philippe’s daughter and heiress apparent.

Conclusion, the Belgium Royal family down to Carl is listed in Family Search.

Source of Trump and Belgian  family relationships is https://www.monarchie.be/en . If Familysearch has records of living persons, the records are private.